In 1878, just two years after the United States celebrated her centenary, Pope Leo XIII was elected to the throne of Peter. In 1899 he issued his apostolic letter, Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae, condemning what he perceived as a budding new heresy: Americanism. Now, in a stroke of historic irony, one hundred and fifty years after his own election, Pope Leo XIII is succeeded by an American who took his name out of admiration for Leo XIII – the pope who was against Americanism.
Of course, Leo XIII’s critique of Americanism was not a case of ethnic bigotry or nationalist envy. Far from a blanket condemnation of the American character or republic, Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae targeted a specific set of tendencies that threatened the integrity of Catholic doctrine and discipline by subordinating them to the spirit of the age.
