KDM: A Revealing Short History of the USCCB

Pope Leo XIII was so struck by them that, by January 22, 1899, he felt compelled to compose an encyclical letter, Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, in which he condemned seven of the propositions that seemed to emanate from America – a suite of ideas Pope Leo condemned as “Americanism”:
The condemned ideas:

1. The Church should shape her teachings in accord with popular custom, relax her disciplines or omit or de-emphasize doctrines that non-Catholics find scandalous, that is, a tendency towards silence that omits or neglects Catholic doctrine;
2. The Church should grant to the faithful the same kind of freedom in spiritual matters that the state grants in civil matters;
3. Catholics need only adhere to infallible teachings of the Roman pontiff;
4. License is coterminous with liberty;
5. External spiritual guidance is not necessary;
6. Active virtues are superior to “angelical virtues, erroneously styled passive” virtues;
7. Religious life and vows are harmful to human perfection and/or society.

The American bishops agreed with one voice that such heretical ideas could never be found in America. Yet, despite the bishops’ protestations, the ideas seem somehow rendolent of Father Hecker’s “social justice” spirituality. In fact, Americanism was the first heresy in 300 years to be named after a specific geographic region.

continue at Knights of Divine Mercy

Great article

HT SK