5. Do you feel the new information (Canon Laws) found override what you thought to be true in the book?
This is in reference to some new Canon Laws that have been presented by some. All of these were well known by Benns and Bawden, when they wrote the book in 1989. All were addressed at that time. Two thigns have been presented that have no bearing on teh case, as can be seen, if the quotes are taken in context.
Cqnon 160: The election of the Roman Pontiff is governed exclusively by the Constitution of Pope Pius X, Vacante Sede Apostolica, December 25, 1904. In other ecclesiastical elections the laws of the following Canons are to be observed, and also such special regulations as may have been legitimately enacted for the election to individual offices. (Note Pope Pius XII’s Law replaces Pope Saint Pius X’s).
Canon 1 of the Third Lateran Council provides: But in the Roman Church there is constituted something special, because recourse cannot be had to a superior.
This provision provides and history shows that nothing has invalidated a papal election, until October 28, 1958. (That is discussed in detail elsewhere on the Vatican In Exile.)
Saint Alphonsus states: It doesn’t matter that in past centuries some pontiff has been elected by fraud: it suffices that he has been accepted after as pope by all the Church, for this fact he has become true pontiff Pope Pius XII goes to great lengths to state thatnothing invalidates, as does Pope Saint Pius X before him.
