Letter From Teresa Benns
From Teresa Benns To Prakash J. Mascarenhas Subject Unity at what cost? Date Tue, 17 Sep 2002 00:30:57 EDT
Dear Mr. Prakash,
We have never met nor exchanged e-mails although I have read your work and you, obviously, mine. Here I refer to the book I co-authored with David Bawden, now Pope Michael I.
I say this because I read your review of our work on your website and was taken aback by the rash statements made that we manufactured some of our research and could not back up what we wrote. If you read the book in its entirety, you know we invited inquiries and correction on any misrepresentation of doctrine. Had we not done so, I would not be surprised at your failure to contact Pope Michael or myself before posting such a scathing review for the entire world to see.
But especially in light of your recent plea for charity in our dealings with each other, re: the council and unity, I feel redress of this matter is in order. Before advising such charity, prudence, etc..., you should first demonstrate that you yourself possess it by extending to us and any others you have treated similarly at least a chance to answer publicly what has been stated publicly. As a working journalist, I am required to print such rebuttals and retractions whenever necessary in the course of my work. I have gladly done so on many occasions. This is the ethical code of secular journalists, and as you might expect, this code binds Catholic publicists much more stringently than their secular counterparts.
In order to be taken seriously in this very grave undertaking, all of us must clean our own side of the street before trying to take any leadership position. By proceeding according to the laws of fraternal correction, I am offering you this opportunity to rectify the situation without any embarrassment. I hope the matter can be resolved at this level.
In your recent letter, you state that we must go on without those who fail to work toward unity. But why should this apathy surprise you? The failure of most priests to respond to any call to unity to pull the Church together is only a repeat of what happened after we wrote the book.
We even had a few priests hang on for awhile, but they wished to run the election to their own advantage and had no regard for the Church's stated procedure, Her laws, or the teachings of Her continual magisterium. The one method rejected today also was rejected when the book came out 12 years ago. That method is Scholastic philosophy, and without it nothing that is presently being done can possibly be pleasing to God.
Why do I say this? Because it is only a reiteration of the opinions of numerous popes who have said it in the past. In "Tuas Libenter," issued to the Germans in 1863, Pope Pius IX warned those opposed to the "old school," (faithful scholastic theologians) that by questioning this system they endanger "the very authority of the Church itself." If Scholastic philosophy is not used as the cornerstone of the foundation that must ground the restored Church, that Church will be built on the sand of the Gospel parable. For as Pius IX noted, Scholasticism, "sanctioned by the common consent of all the Catholic schools," is held by the Church as a "very strong buttress of the faith and a formidable armory against its enemies," (DZ 1680). And the entire purpose of Pius IX 's letter was to advise certain disobedient parties not receptive to Scholastic method that they are not free to abandon it even in things not expressly defined, because over these the Church yet retains authority.
So here we have priests and laymen doing the very thing forbidden by Pius IX and other pontiffs. Against all prudence, the common consent of all Catholic schools and despite the "warm praises" of numerous pontiffs for Scholasticism, they cast aside this very strong buttress of faith, the armor of the Church against Her enemies, and hold tenaciously to their yet-to-be defined opinion that epikeia excuses them. As Pius XI taught and Canon Law states, (DZ 2192), not only must bishops and priests hold St. Thomas Aquinas' methods as sacred, but also his doctrines and principles. Pius XI does note that none can be prevented from following the probable opinion of "teachers of higher distinction," but this is not the case where epikeia is concerned. For in order to determine if this opinion is truly probable, the laws of scholasticism and Sacred Theology would need to be applied, and this has not been done. Why? Because in order to determine if epikeia can be applied to this circumstance, in these times, the opinion of at least one very learned pre-VII theologian is required. Where is it?
Searching the web shows where all the true support for epikeia lies, and that is in the Novus Ordo church. A treatise on its application was written recently from Rome and a Canon Law thesis explaining its virtues was written two years ago. Prior to that it, at least in its present interpretation and usage, it was a novel idea that sprang up sometime between Vatican II and now. And this novelty is what we wish to use in order to "restore" the Church?
Canon Law, another revered source of Church Tradition also has been short-changed in these deliberations. As we quote in the book, when in doubt revert to the old law, a principle embodied in Canon Law itself. The old law states that when priests have not received jurisdiction from a valid, duly authorized bishop, Sacraments and Holy Mass cannot take place. This is the teaching of St. Thomas, and the Church endorses all his teachings.
Pius IX holds those who teach opinions as certain outside the Scholastic system guilty of theological censure, (DZ 1684). He and Pope Pius XI both reference numerous popes who encourage and laud the use of the Scholastic system. By order of Pius XI, priests and bishops are to hold St. Thomas' methods and doctrines as sacred. Probabilism, a moral system useful in other applications, does not extend to the validity of the sacraments. The attempt to apply this moral system to the Sacraments was condemned by Innocent XI. Since these statements issue from the popes themselves, there can be no probable opinion that contradicts them, for no one is above the popes or able to judge them.
If these two disciplines - Scholasticism and Canon Law - are not an essential part of the unity equation, any resulting election will be only an additional cross for Our Lord to bear, and a further source of scandal in the Church. The truths of Catholicism are not isolated truths - all are integrally connected with each other in such a way that to neglect one is to denigrate the rest. Pius IX once stated the only unity worth having is unity in truth. Rev. Felix Sarda, author of "Liberalism Is a Sin," a book highly commended by Pope Leo XIII, tells us "Sovereign Catholic inflexibility is sovereign Catholic charity." Unless and until all those striving to reunite the Church are one in truth, all truth, and nothing but the fullness of Catholic truth, no restoration is possible or desirable.
May Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us all,
Teresa L. Benns