Q: I am confused about the term being tossed around, called Americanism. Could you shed some light on what the Church teaches about being Catholic in the United States? I am aware of different takes on different platforms. It is very confusing to me, especially now that we have an American pope. — P.R.

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC:

A: Americanism was an idea attacked by Pope Leo XIII in an 1899 document Testem Benevolentiae (In Witness to Good Will).

Broadly speaking, the Pope was concerned about trends he detected in the thinking of some American Catholics who thought their adaptations to the U.S. way of life should be a model for all in the Church.

Some of the ideas they promoted were separation of Church and state (a phrase that isn’t in the U.S. Constitution, by the way), an emphasis on outward works at the expense of the interior (spiritual) life, and the belief that Catholics could decide a lot of things for themselves with the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit (that is, without Church involvement).

Some U.S. Church leaders denied that Americanism was a real problem; hence, it was sometimes called the phantom heresy.

In retrospect, Leo XIII was on to something. The kind of thing he worried about eventually came to be known as cafeteria Catholicism, whereby the faithful pick and choose what they want to follow regarding Church teaching.

For related reading, see here.

The 2013 book mentioned at the end of the post, American Church: The Remarkable Rise, Meteoric Fall, and Uncertain Future of Catholicism in America, is a short, very interesting read.

As for what the Church teaches about being Catholic in the U.S.: That is a big topic, and a full answer could fill a book.

Suffice it to say that Catholics in any country should, as 1 Peter 2:17 counsels, “Give honor to all, love the community, fear God, honor the king.”