Clarifications
From [email protected] Date Fri, 29 Nov 2002 18:56:01 EST Sub. Corrections To Prakash John Mascarenhas, PopeMichael
Sorry this has taken awhile to get to you. I hope it is acceptable.
Teresa Benns
<>< Getting back to basics to restore all things in Christ ><>
Corrections to the book "Will the Catholic Church Survive...?"
Prakash Mascarenhas, in reading the above-mentioned book I co-authored with David Bawden, (now Pope Michael I ) in 1989, has asked me to correct certain points in the book. This I am only too happy to do.
Mr. Mascarenhas believes the mention of the claim of Freemasonry against Pope Pius IX was badly presented, and this I will clarify. In this section of the book I wrote from a historical, not a theological point of view. I was attempting to weigh all that had been said on the subject and drew from the sources at hand. My intent was to discount the entire matter, but in such a way that it was clear other positions and evidence also had been considered. In no way did I ever intend to impugn the reputation of Pius IX, one of my favorite popes. The book I quoted from
entitled "Catholic Controversy" labeled the claim "calumnious," and this was my position. De Montor, in his "Lives of the Popes," dismisses it simply as "silly." The other source I referred to did not mention the Masonic membership calumny, but intimated that Pope Pius IX, a very devout, charitable and good-hearted young man not yet ordained had innocently associated with certain individuals later claimed to be Freemasons. This could happen to anyone. He dutifully sought the advice of Pope Pius VII on this matter and went away with a clear conscience.
Certainly no one reading the book could ever infer that I had any doubts whatsoever concerning Pope Pius IX's total innocence in this matter, considering that the book was based largely on the weight of the Vatican Council documents. Pope Pius IX was a valiant defender of the faith, a man of peace who exhausted himself in attempts to avert war among his own people and Catholics in various locations throughout the world. He was compassionate and charitable to a fault and one of the most simple-living and frugal pontiffs to ever sit in the Chair of St. Peter. His election was said to fulfill several prophecies, one made by Pope Gregory XVI and another by Bl. Anna Marie Taigi. Without the Vatican Council, the Church would have been practically defenseless against Her enemies, and the primacy of the Roman Pontiff still would be in theological limbo, even though this doctrine was always held by the Church. I have asked this great pope in heaven to forgive me if I have misled anyone by my statements made in the book.
In several places the word Arian is spelled Aryan, (both terms were used more than once in the book). This was a typographical error made by our non-Catholic typesetter. The software she used to typeset the book had an automatic correction feature, such as the one found in PageMaker today. If you typed in one spelling of the word, it would automatically change all spellings to the one indicated. I asked her to correct the spelling on Arian and she mistakenly chose the other spelling. We regret this error and any resulting confusion it caused.
Sincerely in Jesus and Mary,
Teresa (Stanfill) Benns