John Courtney Murray aside, the United States of America - and the so-called “American Dream” - has often had an uneasy relationship with the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.
Indeed, there was an era in which the Church denounced “Americanism” as a heresy, both in the United States and overseas. While it is true that the heretical views could have been named more precisely, it seems clear Pope Leo XIII (one of the foremost defenders of the rights of workers) was worried about American Catholics capitulating to the values of the nation-state rather than those consistent with the Gospel from Jesus Christ.
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