Americanism, an Insidious Heresy that Needs to Be Killed
Table of Contents
What is Americanism?
Pope Leo XIII condemned the heresy of Americanism, which is an umbrella term for several condemned teachings.
I encourage you to read his papal encyclical, Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, that condemns Americanism.
But I will still break it down for you in this article, if you just want a quick summary.
Many historians have described Americanism as a “phantom heresy.”
These historians argue that American Catholics really didn’t practice these teachings in the late 19th century.
However, the reception of my most recent article, showing how the Church condemns separation of Church and State, shocked me.
People responded to me saying that the separation of Church and State has worked well for America.
Therefore, I can see that Americanism is alive and well. Hopefully, I can help in killing this heresy once and for all.
So what are the condemned teachings in Americanism?
- Conceding, changing or minimizing Church doctrine for any reason, including to bring people to the Faith.
- Having the liberty to choose what one wants to believe instead of submitting to the Magisterium.
- No longer needing external spiritual guidance, since the Holy Spirit alone suffices, which leads to disobedience.
- Exalting natural virtues over supernatural virtues.
- Exalting active virtues, or activism as we call it today, over passive virtues, like humility and obedience.
- Rejection of religious vows, particularly those of contemplatives, because they lead to loss of liberty.
So I will go through each, using contemporary examples to show what Pope Leo XIII is condemning.
Americanism Error 1 – Changing Church Doctrine
Pope Leo XIII writes:
…the Church should shape her teachings more in accord with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity and make some concessions to new opinions. Many think that these concessions should be made not only in regard to ways of living, but even in regard to doctrines which belong to the deposit of the faith. They contend that it would be opportune, in order to gain those who differ from us, to omit certain points of her teaching which are of lesser importance, and to tone down the meaning which the Church has always attached to them. It does not need many words…to prove the falsity of these ideas…
Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae
Let it be far from anyone’s mind to suppress for any reason any doctrine that has been handed down. Such a policy would tend rather to separate Catholics from the Church than to bring in those who differ. There is nothing closer to our heart than to have those who are separated from the fold of Christ return to it, but in no other way than the way pointed out by Christ.
Ibid.
Clearly, Pope Leo XIII is saying that we can never suppress or make concessions to Church doctrine for any reason.
In other words, we cannot concede doctrine to bring people into the Church nor to build bridges with the world.
Today, you often see so-called “Catholics” wanting to do things, like support abortion, gay marriage, or suppress differences with other religions.
You even see many people in the Catholic hierarchy doing this. But the Church has condemned this.
So not even a Pope can change doctrine to support things like homosexuality or false ecumenism with non-Christian religions.
Americanism Error 2 – Not Submitting to the Magisterium
Pope Leo XIII writes:
In this matter [of correct doctrine] the Church must be the judge, not private men who are often deceived by the appearance of right.
Ibid.
But…there is even a greater danger and a more manifest opposition to Catholic doctrine and discipline in that opinion of the lovers of novelty, according to which they hold such liberty should be allowed in the Church, that her supervision and watchfulness being in some sense lessened, allowance be granted the faithful, each one to follow out more freely the leading of his own mind and the trend of his own proper activity. They are of opinion that such liberty has its counterpart in the newly given civil freedom which is now the right and the foundation of almost every secular state.
Ibid.
…if we are to come to any conclusion from the infallible teaching authority of the Church, it should rather be that no one should wish to depart from it, and moreover that the minds of all being leavened and directed thereby, greater security from private error would be enjoyed by all.
Ibid.
These dangers, viz., the confounding of license with liberty, the passion for discussing and pouring contempt upon any possible subject, the assumed right to hold whatever opinions one pleases upon any subject and to set them forth in print to the world, have so wrapped minds in darkness that there is now a greater need of the Church’s teaching office than ever before, lest people become unmindful both of conscience and of duty.
Ibid.
So he is hammering in the point that the reason God created the Church was to protect people from themselves.
God instituted the Magisterium, the Pope and Bishops, to authoritatively teach the Faith.
If Catholics reject this Magisterial authority in favor of their own opinions, then they are no different than Protestants.
There are many Magisterial teachings that many so-called “Catholics” reject.
I hope those people read this article and change their minds, for their own sake!
Americanism Error 3 – No Longer Needing Spiritual Guidance
Pope Leo XIII writes:
First, all external guidance is set aside for those souls who are striving after Christian perfection as being superfluous or indeed, not useful in any sense -the contention being that the Holy Spirit pours richer and more abundant graces than formerly upon the souls of the faithful, so that without human intervention He teaches and guides them by some hidden instinct of His own.
Ibid.
And shall any one who recalls the history of the apostles, the faith of the nascent church, the trials and deaths of the martyrs- and, above all, those olden times, so fruitful in saints-dare to measure our age with these, or affirm that they received less of the divine outpouring from the Spirit of Holiness?
Ibid.
Moreover, as experience shows, these monitions and impulses of the Holy Spirit are for the most part felt through the medium of the aid and light of an external teaching authority…
Ibid.
Nor can we leave out of consideration the truth that those who are striving after perfection, since by that fact they walk in no beaten or well-known path, are the most liable to stray, and hence have greater need than others of a teacher and guide. Such guidance has ever obtained in the Church…and hence to reject it would be to commit one’s self to a belief at once rash and dangerous.
Ibid.
Pope Leo XIII presents the bad argument rather well here, and knocks it down just as well.
Believing that we just need the Holy Spirit now is rejecting all those Saints that were obedient to the Church.
You are also rejecting the necessity of having a teacher or guide, which is the epitome of pridefulness.
Moreover, a lot of these people that buy into this ideology are disobedient to the Magisterium.
They listen to what they believe to be the Holy Spirit guide them into disobedience.
It could just as easily be the Devil (and likely is) guiding them to disobedience.
Americanism Error 4 – Natural Virtues Better Than Supernatural Virtues
Pope Leo XIII writes:
To practice virtue there is absolute need of the assistance of the Holy Spirit, yet we find those who are fond of novelty giving an unwarranted importance to the natural virtues, as though they better responded to the customs and necessities of the times and that having these as his outfit man becomes more ready to act and more strenuous in action. It is not easy to understand how persons possessed of Christian wisdom can either prefer natural to supernatural virtues or attribute to them a greater efficacy and fruitfulness. Can it be that nature conjoined with grace is weaker than when left to herself?
Ibid.
Can it be that those men illustrious for sanctity, whom the Church distinguishes and openly pays homage to, were deficient, came short in the order of nature and its endowments, because they excelled in Christian strength?…Yet ever to master such, as also to preserve in its entirety the law of the natural order, requires an assistance from on high…Grant that it is virtue, unless we would “run in vain” and be unmindful of that eternal bliss which a good God in his mercy has destined for us, of what avail are natural virtues unless seconded by the gift of divine grace?
Ibid.
In other words, the Church teaches that in order to even master natural virtue we need help from God.
And in order to get that help from God, we need to have Faith, Hope and Charity.
You see a lot of Catholics today stress natural virtues such as kindness, gentleness or tenderness.
But none of these mean anything to your soul if you aren’t building your Faith, Hope and Charity.
Americanism Error 5 – Active Virtues Better Than Passive Virtues
Firstly, the terms “active” and “passive” virtues aren’t common terms these days, like they were over a century ago.
An “active” virtue refers to things like activism, humanitarianism, voting, etc.
In contrast, a “passive” virtue refers to things like humility, obedience, etc.
That out of the way, Pope Leo XIII writes:
This overesteem of natural virtue finds a method of expression in assuming to divide all virtues in active and passive, and it is alleged that whereas passive virtues found better place in past times, our age is to be characterized by the active. That such a division and distinction cannot be maintained is patent-for there is not, nor can there be, merely passive virtue.
Ibid.
He alone could wish that some Christian virtues be adapted to certain times and different ones for other times who is unmindful…[that] Christ is the teacher and the exemplar of all sanctity, and to His standard must all those conform who wish for eternal life. Nor does Christ know any change as the ages pass…
Ibid.
To every age has He been made manifest to us as obedient even unto death;…Would to God that more nowadays practiced these virtues in the degree of the saints of past times, who in humility, obedience and self-restraint were powerful “in word and in deed” -to the great advantage not only of religion, but of the state and the public welfare.
Ibid.
So when so-called “Catholics” emphasize social justice activism over practicing personal virtue, this is an error.
The correct order, as taught by Pope Leo XIII, is to practice supernatural virtue, then natural virtue.
And then you can use these virtues you have developed, with God’s help, to help the world.
You see this backwards in today’s world.
You see so-called “Catholics” that don’t want to pray and fast or develop their interior life.
Yet, they love to go out and participate in social justice causes, many of which are contrary to the Faith.
And they would know these were contrary to the Faith, if they would put Faith and virtue before activism.
Americanism Error 6 – Rejection of Religious Vows in Favor of Liberty
Pope Leo XIII writes:
They say vows are alien to the spirit of our times, in that they limit the bounds of human liberty; that they are more suitable to weak than to strong minds; that so far from making for human perfection and the good of human organization, they are hurtful to both; but that this is as false as possible from the practice and the doctrine of the Church is clear, since she has always given the very highest approval to the religious method of life;
Ibid.
Those who so bind themselves by the vows of religion, far from having suffered a loss of liberty, enjoy that fuller and freer kind, that liberty, namely, by which Christ hath made us free. And this further view of theirs, namely, that the religious life is either entirely useless or of little service to the Church, besides being injurious to the religious orders cannot be the opinion of anyone who has read the annals of the Church.
Ibid.
But if there be those who prefer to form one body without the obligation of the vows let them pursue such a course. It is not new in the Church, nor in any wise censurable. Let them be careful, however, not to set forth such a state above that of religious orders.
Ibid.
In other words, the American Catholics of Pope Leo XIII’s day looked down upon religious orders.
We can see the fruits of that today, as religious orders have entirely evaporated from their former state.
Parents urge their children to pursue careers over priestly or religious vocations.
Moreover, many religious orders that remain have fallen into putting activism before interior life.
How often do we see Jesuits, friars or de-habited nuns push non-Catholic social justice activism?
It happens way to often because we have fallen into embracing “active” vocations over contemplative vocations.
Religious orders, particularly those of contemplatives, are a higher calling than lay-life.
And we should respect the religious life.
Final Thoughts on Americanism
In conclusion, Americanism is an umbrella heresy that contains several other heresies.
We call this group of heresies “Americanism” because they are fruits of putting the American way of thinking before Catholicism.
Many heresies originate from us making an idol out of another ideology and putting it before God.
I recently wrote about people putting liberalism, feminism, economic systems, and separation of Church and State before God.
This isn’t different. It’s like the others in that you are still putting something as an idol above God and His Church.
Hopefully, after reading this article you can resist the temptation to put our nation before Church teachings.
Like you (hopefully) I love my country too, but I don’t love my country more than God and His Church.
I want to make America great again. But to do that, I strongly believe that it needs to become more Catholic.