Americanism heresy: Encyclopedia II - Americanism heresy - Social aspect

Americanism heresy - Social aspect

The Irish potato famine caused a mass exodus of Irish Catholics to the United States, causing Catholicism to become the United States' largest single Christian denomination. America remains majority-Protestant, and that was more true then than now. Discrimination against the Irish immigrants led them to seek assimilation into U.S. culture. At the time the Catholic church in the United States was divided along ethnic lines, so that Irish Catholics had Irish bishops, Germans had German bishops, etc.

The Irish Americans formed the majority of Catholics, and therefore had the most bishops. The bishops at this time came to share American ideals of liberalism. Therefore they allowed their members to join groups led by Protestants. They also emphasized the role of the laity more than some felt acceptable. Cardinal Gibbons and others indicated the priests should "go to the people" rather than the other way around. The vows of obedience in many religious orders seemed threatened because they may contradict American ideals of independence. American bishops allegedly felt harmony between different faiths would be benefitted if Catholicism downplayed its notion of being "the One Holy Apostolic Church." They also felt that separation of church and state should be supported instead of hoping that the United States could some day turn into a Roman Catholic nation. Finally the "heresy" believed Catholics should attend public school, read whatever they want, and express pride in a majority-Protestant nation.

These ideals were brought forcefully to the attention of European Catholics by Comptesse de Ravilliax's translation of a biography of Isaac Thomas Hecker by Walter Elliot. Although it was the introduction by Abbe Felix Klein that drew the most ire of the Vatican. Father Hecker had been dead for years at this point and had never been viewed by the Pope with disfavor. However the translation and introductions to the book about him made him a much more radical than he had been in the English version.

Hence Pope Leo XIII intervened. Two years before he did so though Pope Leo XIII indicated a generally positive view of the USA in the encyclical Longinqua. This work commented most on the success of Catholicism in the US but noted the view that "she(the Church) would bring forth more abundant fruits if, in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the public authority." Catholicism had long allowed nations to tolerate other religions, but Popes traditionally felt Catholicism should be favored as the true faith when possible. More relevant to this controversy Pope Leo XIII expressed concerns about whether the alleged liberalism of American Catholics was true. In case it was he bolstered the idea that the faithful could not decide doctrine for themselves. He also emphasized that Catholics should obey the teaching authority of the Church. In general he deemed exposing children to public schools as something to be avoided when possible. In fairness public schools at this time could still require the saying of Protestant prayers and reading of the King James Bible. The Pope derided the idea all opinions should be aired publicly as he felt certain speech could harm general morality. The Index of Prohibited Books remained. He condemned the biography of Hecker and what he deemed to be Americanism.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Social aspect", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki