PART 2 - Some of your previous comments:
“..the leadership of the Knights does not take religious vows and are therefore not personally under obedience to the Holy See. ..[The Pope's jurisdiction] extends only to the clergy..”
“..[only] The Patron and the Prelate can be removed by the Holy Father as they report to him.”
“The Grand Master and his ‘allies’ have not taken ‘religious vows’”.
“No, the vows made by the Knights members are not ‘religious vows.”

So the point that you were ‘missing’ was the key one - namely, that Festing, a professed Knight, had taken vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience. Professed Knights obey the Pope. This is their first loyalty. If they have other loyalties, this takes precedence. Grand Masters are elected from professed Knights of Perpetual Vows.
It was obvious, then, that Festing’s ‘squaring up’ to the Pope would likely end badly for him - this being the point that I had made - and which you had rejected. But you had been wrong.
As events have proved.