Pope Francis appointed Fra’ John T. Dunlap, former member of the Sovereign Council, as the Sovereign Order of Malta’s Lieutenant of the Grand Master.  He succeeds Fra’ Marco Luzzago, who died on 7 June.

The new Lieutenant of the Grand Master, together with the Pope’s Special Delegate and the Sovereign Council, will continue the Sovereign Order of Malta’s constitutional reform process.

Fra’ John Dunlap was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1957. After studying at the University of Nice, he graduated from the University of Ottawa and then received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Western Ontario. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in public service from John Cabot University in Rome. He is a lawyer admitted to the New York State Bar, and a barrister and solicitor of the Province of Ontario. In 1986, he joined the New York legal firm Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller, becoming a partner in 1993. He specializes in corporate and immigration law. An internationally respected lawyer, since 1997 he has been legal adviser to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations.

Admitted to the Order of Malta in 1996, Fra’ John Dunlap took his temporary vows as Knight of Justice in 2004. In 2006 he was elected the first Regent (religious superior) of the Sub-Priory of Our Lady of Lourdes, based in New York. On 7 June 2008, he was the first American member to take his solemn vows.

In 2009 Dunlap was elected for a five-year term as a member of the Sovereign Council. He was re-elected for another five years by the Chapter General – the Order’s elective assembly – in 2014 and 2019.For over a decade he served the Order of Malta as President of the Committee for the Protection of Names and Emblems and as Representative to the Alliance of the Orders of St John.

More information on the Order’s institutional website.