Members of TIA have read from different sources that Giovanni Mastai Ferreti, the future Pius IX, had been a Freemason. Books register reports of the festivities the Masons promoted in Rome when Cardinal Mastai Ferreti was elected Pope. There has even been mention of a medal coined by Freemasonry to celebrate the 'Masonic Pope.' In some articles our writers have mentioned this fact in passing, not with certitude - because they had lost track of the original sources where they read the information - but rather as a hypothesis to be taken into consideration (here, here, and here).
That Pius IX could have been a Mason has raised indignation in some circles of blind-devotees of the Papacy, who refuse a priori to admit this possibility. It also created deep malaise among sede-vacantists who do not admit that a Freemason can be elected a Pope.
Without entering into discussion with these currents, TIA offers to its readers the documents below, taken from Masonic sources, as a contribution to the historical-theological-canonical debate. These photocopies are snapshots from the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, Canada.
http://traditioninaction.org/ProgressivistDoc/A_180_Mastai.html
