VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis launched an investigation Thursday into the ouster of a top official at the Order of Malta, the ancient aristocratic religious order, amid evidence that Francis’ own envoy to the group engineered the removal without his blessing over a years-old condom scandal.

Albrecht von Boeselager, a high-ranking official in the order for three decades, was removed as grand chancellor Dec. 8 after he refused to resign.

One charge against him concerned a program that the order’s Malteser International aid group had worked several years ago with other aid groups to help sex slaves in Myanmar. The trafficked women had been forced to work as prostitutes and were given condoms to protect themselves from AIDS, two people familiar with the case said.

An internal investigation was conducted and von Boeselager admitted he knew about the condoms, which were distributed by other aid programs, not his. The Vatican was informed, Malteser International’s participation in the program ended and an ethics committee was launched to ensure that future projects adhered to Catholic Church teaching, the officials said.

Church teaching opposes artificial contraception. However, some Catholic priests and nuns in Africa and elsewhere have condoned the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. Francis himself has said that “avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil” when, for example, women are at risk of the Zika virus.

In a statement, von Boeselager said he had been asked to resign during a Dec. 6 meeting attended by Francis’ ambassador to the order, the conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke. During the meeting, the order’s grand master indicated that the request to resign “was in accordance with the wishes of the Holy See.”

However, no such request was ever made. Von Boeselager said since his ouster, the Holy See has written to the order “confirming that such a wish was never raised.”

By naming an independent commission to look into the case, Francis appears to be seeking an objective assessment of von Boeselager and his ouster without the input of Burke, who has been among Francis’ fiercest critics.

Burke is one of four cardinals who have publicly questioned Francis’ flexible approach to whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion. Burke is a hard-liner on the issue, as well as on the absolute prohibition on the use of artificial contraception.

Francis removed him as the Vatican’s supreme court justice in 2014 and named him to be the patron of the Order of Malta, an ancient Catholic order that runs hospitals and clinics around the world and has an army of volunteers who respond to natural disasters and war zones.

Burke had conveyed to the Order of Malta’s governing council on Dec. 6 that Francis wanted von Boeselager to resign, the two people familiar with the case said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak about internal meetings.

Burke warned that if von Boeselager wasn’t removed, the Vatican would take over the order’s properties, they said.

On Dec. 15, a new grand chancellor was elected, John Edward Critien.

In his statement, von Boeselager said he still considers himself the duly elected grand chancellor, albeit one who has been impeded from doing his job because of an ouster that violated the order’s legal norms on several fronts. He said he has always felt bound by the teachings of the church and rejected the “liberal” label that his opponents have given him.

“To contrive an accusation that I do not acknowledge the church’s teaching on sexuality and the family, based on the sequence of events in the Malteser International Myanmar project, is absurd,” the statement said.

The pope’s five-member commission of inquiry is made up of Order of Malta members who have close ties to the German-born von Boeselager. Francis also named a trusted Jesuit canon lawyer as a member.

The knights trace their history to the 11th century with the establishment of an infirmary in Jerusalem that cared for people of all faiths making pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

Story: Nicole Winfield

BERLIN — German officials presented mounting evidence Thursday that Anis Amri was behind the wheel of a truck that smashed into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12, as authorities across Europe pressed ahead with their feverish manhunt for the 24-year-old Tunisian, who has evaded capture since the attack.

Police raided properties in Berlin and the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia where Amri is believed to have spent time. They also swooped on a bus in the southwestern city of Heilbronn after receiving a tip that turned up nothing.

Police: Truck Attack That Killed 12 in Berlin ‘Intentional’

No arrests were made, said Frauke Koehler, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors.

Even so, investigators were increasingly confident that Amri carried out the rampage after finding his fingerprints in the cab of the truck that had been hijacked shortly before Monday’s attack.

“We can tell you today that there are additional indications that this suspect is with high probability really the perpetrator,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said after visiting the Federal Criminal Police Office along with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Fingerprints were found in the cab, and there are other, additional indications that suggest this,” he told reporters. “It is all the more important that the search is successful as soon as possible.”

German authorities have been on the defensive after it emerged that Amri had been considered a potential threat for months, subjected to surveillance and put in pre-deportation detention in August only to be released again due to paperwork problems.

The fact that the attack is alleged to have been carried out by a man who came to Germany seeking asylum last year also prompted fresh criticism of Merkel’s decision to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants into the country without thorough security checks.

While police have noted that most migrants are law-abiding, a number of high-profile crimes, including the New Year’s Eve assaults in Cologne and several violent attacks over the summer have stoked anti-migrant feeling in Germany. Two attacks in July, along with the truck attack in Berlin, were claimed by the Islamic State group.

“We have made great efforts in recent years to better prepare for terrorist threats,” Merkel told reporters. “This makes me confident that we will withstand the test that we now face.”

While members of Merkel’s party have called for tighter asylum laws and a crackdown on potential extremists in the wake of the attack, the chancellor appealed once more for calm.

“I want to say how very proud I’ve been in recent days that the great majority of people have reacted soberly,” she said.

At the site of the bloodbath, Berliners made a show of defiance. Vendors reopened their stalls at the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church even as police placed concrete blocks by the roadside to provide extra security.

In tribute to the victims, organizers decided to do without festive music and bright lights. Berliners and visitors placed candles and flowers at a makeshift shrine for the victims .

Berlin’s state Health Ministry raised the number of injured in the attack to 56, saying some victims went to hospitals on their own.

The agency said 12 people were being treated for severe injuries, with some still in critical condition. Another 14 people with less-serious injuries remained hospitalized and 30 others had been discharged.

German authorities have offered a reward of 100,000 euros ($105,000) for information leading to Amri’s arrest, but they warned he could be “violent and armed.”

In Tunisia, Amri’s brothers spoke to The Associated Press, urging him to surrender to authorities. “Whether he did it or not, I ask him to report to the police. We are suffering because of him,” said Abdelkader Amri.

Another brother, Walid, said Amri may have been radicalized in prison in Italy, where he went after leaving Tunisia in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Italy’s Justice Ministry confirmed reports that Amri was repeatedly transferred among Sicilian prisons for bad conduct, with prison records saying he bullied inmates and tried to spark insurrections. He served 3½ years for setting a fire at a refugee center and making threats, among other things — but Italy apparently detected no signs that he was becoming radicalized.

Amri’s mother, Nour El Houda Hassani, insisted he had shown no signs of radicalization and questioned whether he was really the market attacker. Speaking in the central Tunisian town of Oueslatia, she said poverty drove Amri to steal and to travel illegally to Europe.

“I want the truth to be revealed about my son,” she said. “If he is the perpetrator of the attack, let him assume his responsibilities and I’ll renounce him before God. If he didn’t do anything, I want my son’s rights to be restored.”