Sister Therese has received the Abbess' letter with the enclosed letter from the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda handed to herby Robert? Stuart of Detroit. As to the letter of Propaganda, Sister Therese cannot understand what it means as the Abbess herself told Sister Therese several times that she desired the Bishop Frederick Rese to take out of the Pittsburgh property what the Detroit place cost him and about which the Abbess said the Bishop refused to do anything until the Pittsburgh affair was settled. If the Abbess has given the Bishop $2000 as the enclosed paper certifies, why did she so often tell Sister Therese that the Bishop was to pay himself out of Pittsburgh? The Abbess also had shown to Sister Therese the returned deed between the Abbess and the Bishop stating that he had no further claim on the property. Since the Abbess' departure several persons have told Sister Therese that the property belonged to the Bishop and the wife of Mr. Hadem? stated that Mr. Hadem? had bought the place for the Bishop. Sister Therese received the Abbess' second letter and states that all the questions proposed are false. The information Father John B deBruyn must have given was sufficient. Sister Therese cannot understand why the Abbess is silent with the Bishop. She arrived November 16 and has not given them the least information in regard to establishing or her intention in regard to Sister Marie Josephine and herself. Sister Therese wants to know positively what they are to do; if they are to go on or if they are to be turned out into the world. The abbess dare not, under pain of mortal sin, destroy what the remaining faithful part of the Community has kept up since June 24, 1837. If she refuses to establish this house she will have to render an account at the judgment seat of God and will perhaps undergo severe sentence by being accessory to all the scandal it will cause, perhaps like a second Pittsburgh. Stevens Thomson Mason with his family. :: III-2-g A.L.S. 3pp. 8vo. ` 9