January 22: Witness to Our Benevolence

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is January 22nd, and our story is Witness to Our Benevolence. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. When it came to stifling the creeping heresy of Americanism in the 19th century, that was the church's motto. In 1895, concerned with certain secularizing and modernizing tendencies within the Church in America and Europe, Pope Leo XIII penned the encyclical letter Longinqua Oceani, The Wide Expanse of the Ocean.

In the main, it was a gentle letter, offering more praise than chastisement, and simply reminding Catholics in America that the government of their nation would bear more fruit if it were more illuminated by the Church's teachings. Around the same time, however, a biography of the Reverend Isaac Thomas Hecker, founder of the Fathers, became popular in France. The translation of the book was somewhat problematic, and a group of French priests began pointing to Hecker as their inspiration for liberalizing and modernizing the Church in ways arguably less than Catholic.

By 1899, the Vatican feared that in both France and America, too much emphasis was being placed on individual initiative in the spiritual life, and not enough on the guidance of the Church. They also feared that the principles of democracy were being applied to the faith, with some Catholics, ordained and lay, believing they could pick and choose which doctrines of the faith they believed. Hoping to put an end to those trends, which together came to be known as Americanism, Pope Leo XIII sent a much more strongly worded letter to Baltimore's Cardinal James Gibbons on January 22, 1899, Testum Benevolentiae Nostrae, Witness to Our Benevolence.

In it, the Pope emphasized the singularly important role of the Church's magisterium and clergy in the formation of conscience, argued against Catholic assimilation in a Protestant nation, and questioned the wisdom of unlimited freedom of speech and press. The American bishops protested, denying Americanism's existence in their midst.

Time, however, told a different story, and Americanism, or, as a strain of it later came to be called, cafeteria Catholicism, would rear its head again in the decades to come. Pope Leo XIII reminds us that liberty of thought and conscience flourishes best under moral guidance and informed leadership.

For modern readers, it calls us to examine how we allow external pressures to shape the practice of our faith, and encourages vigilance, humility, and adherence to sound principles when navigating competing societal messages. Examine one area in your life where cultural trends or peer pressure challenge your values. Write down a principle to guide your actions this week. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, January 23rd, for another story of faith and courage in America.