Another Thirty Pieces of Silver Thrown Away

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Douglas Kmiec, the American Ambassador to Malta who got his thirty pieces of silver from the unreconstructed supporter of baby-killer for whom he campaigned in 2008 by attempting to convince Catholics that we had to find "common ground" with the likes of then-United States Senator Barack Hussein Obama, a quintessential statist and elitist who is governing in the Marxist ways that he learned in his teenage from one Frank Marshall Davis, has thrown away his thirty pieces of silver (see Obama's Communist Mentor).

Alas, Ambassador Kmiec has thrown away his thirty pieces of silver in a fit of pique, not of remorse.

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because he has seen the error of his ways in supporting Obama, who wanted to appoint him as American Ambassador to the Holy See before conciliar officials in the Vatican made it clear that the appointment would be viewed with pleasure  (which in and of itself is amazing as Obama himself was received warmly by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI in the Apostolic Palace on Friday, July 10, 2009, before imparting a "blessing" on this murderer of the preborn and his work).

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because he has changed his own mind about supporting Federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research and now abhors the fact that the man who gave him his thirty pieces of silver does so with great enthusiasm and righteousness.

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because he is opposed to Barack Hussein Obama's open, full-throated support for continued Federal funding for Planned Parenthood and related organizations that are committed to unremitting warfare against the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Commandments as their employees break the Seventh and Eighth Commandments in doing so (stealing taxpayer money and bearing false witness about their evil works by referring to them as "women's health care").

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because he has realized that Barack Hussein's statist policies are a violation of the Natural Law principle of Subsidiarity and seek to impose nanny-state regulations in order to govern various aspects of daily life in order to "protect' us from ourselves as the annual budget deficit soars to over a trillion dollars and as the national debt climbs past fourteen trillion dollars because of this profligate spending spree that has not "revived" an economy that has been shaped by the falsehoods of Protestantism and Judeo-Masonry that cannot but help sow the seeds of its self-destruction over the course of time.

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because he is disgusted with the lies that Barack Hussein Obama told to get ObamaCare passed by Congress and the way in which United States Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is issuing orders that make it possible for insurance exchanges to fund chemical and surgical baby-killing.

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because he is opposed to the madness of the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the endless presence of American troops in Iraq and the unilateral decision of his political patron to involve the armed forces of the United States of America in the Libyan civil war without even bothering to consult with Congressional leaders, no less to obtain an actual declaration of war.

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because of the fact that his silver-minter, Barack Hussein Obama, has appointed his fellow pro-aborts throughout the nooks and

crannies of the Federal government, including a Catholic such as Kathleen Sebelius, who received much blood money in the form of campaign cash from the murdered George Tiller when she was Governor of the State of Kansas from January 13, 2003, to April 28, 2009, and including blatant pro-aborts and statists such as Sonia Maria Sotomayor and Elena Kagan as Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. (See Meet new HHS nominee Kathleen Sebelius.)

Ambassador Kmiec has done so not because he is aghast at the failure of the administration of Barack Hussein Obama to protect the border as United States Border Patrol officers have been instructed by their superiors not to arrest those who violate the laws of this country by entering this country illegally, thereby permitting potential Mohammedan terrorists and Mexican criminals and gang members and drug dealers to enter this country with ready abandon so that they can be enrolled as soon as possible as voters for the organized crime family of naturalism of the false opposite of the "left," the Democratic Party (see Border Agents Confirm Orders Not to Arrest Illegals).

No, Ambassador Douglas Kmiec has thrown away his thirty pieces of silver received for betraying Christ the King and the innocent preborn because he is throwing a hissy fit over the fact that an an internal audit conducted by the Inspector General of the United States Department of State that concluded he spent too much of his time on "unofficial" work, including writing on matters pertaining to Obama's so-called "interfaith initiative":

 

The American ambassador to Malta resigned his post Saturday after criticism from the State Department's inspector general that he was devoting too much time to promoting better relations between religions.

Douglas Kmiec, a prominent conservative constitutional lawyer and member of the Pepperdine University faculty, said in letters to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he rejected the inspector general's conclusion that his advocacy was outside his official mission.

Kmiec wrote that the inspector general had a "flawed and narrow vision of our diplomatic mission" and said his writings had a "highly positive effect on our diplomatic relations."

He complained that, as a result of the inspector general's recommendation that he end that work, "my voice has been prevented from speaking; my pen has been enjoined from writing; and my actions have been confined to the ministerial."

Kmiec, a devout Roman Catholic and a onetime frequent contributor to The Times opinion pages, held important legal posts under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He has been a prominent figure in the antiabortion movement and in efforts to give greater latitude for religion in public life.

He was also impressed by President Obama's religious faith and interest in improving relations between religions, and he supported him during the 2008 presidential election campaign.

After Obama was elected, Kmiec was appointed ambassador to Malta, a conservative Catholic island, and White House officials said that one of his roles would be to advance Obama's views on interfaith dialogue.

But the inspector general's report, issued in February, says he had an "unconventional approach to his role" and devoted much time to writing on the "interfaith initiative." It said his official schedule was "uncharacteristically light," and that he had had "friction with principal officials in Washington, especially over his reluctance to accept their guidance and instructions."

At the same time, the report says, Kmiec had "achieved some policy successes" and was respected by Maltese officials and embassy staff members.

Department officials spent considerable time reviewing and editing Kmiec's writings related to religion, and they barred him from organizing conferences aimed at improving relations between religions, officials said.

In his letter to Obama, Kmiec said that in his post he had devoted time to "what I know you believe in most strongly, namely, personal faith and greater mutual understanding of the faiths of others as the way toward greater mutual respect." The letter also said that he held "the highest respect for your leadership."

Kmiec said that when he worked for the Office of Legal Counsel in 1989 he recommended that inspector generals' work be confined to rooting out waste rather than evaluating departmental policies.

"I suspect I have just experienced a 'sting back,'" Kmiec wrote to Clinton.

White House officials said they would have no comment on the matter. (Douglas Kmiec Resigns as Ambassador to Malta.)

There it is, you, see. Despite Barack Hussein Obama's support for baby-killing and statism and all of the other egregious policies that have placed into even greater jeopardy the common temporal good and the national security of the United States of America, Douglas Kmiec wrote to the reigning caesar and said that he held "the highest respect" for his "leadership."

Highest respect for a man who has funded the killing of innocent human beings at home and abroad?

Highest respect for a man who has boasted of supporting "women's rights" and women's "access to health care" by threatening to veto any bill passed by Congress ends Federal taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and related organizations?

Highest respect for a man who surrenders American national sovereignty and commits the troops of the United States of America to armed hostilities without even bothering to consult Congressional leaders?

Highest respect for a man who admires Marxist dictators such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia?

Yes, the supposedly "pro-life" and "devout" Catholic, Douglas Kmiec, a man who personally supports the destruction of embryonic human beings with taxpayer dollars and who believes that one who makes war upon the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law is a fit holder of the public weal, continues to "respect" the "leadership" of Barack Hussein Obama.

As I am fairly physically and mentally spent from some of my more recent articles that have required a great deal of work, permit me to refer the few and ever, ever dwindling readership of this inconsequential website to two previous articles that have dealt with Douglas Kmiec's betrayal of the true Faith and thus of the good order of our country: Trapped by Apostasy and Willfully Trapped by Apostasy.

Douglas Kmiec, who is exactly two months older that I am, is yet another victim of the tragedy created by the true bishops here in the United States of America in the decades long before the doctrinal and liturgical revolutions of conciliarism who, noting a very few exceptions, never taught the great Social Encyclical letters of Popes Leo XIII, Saint Pius X and Pius XI. Pope Leo XIII knew that this was indeed the case, exhorting American bishops to do precisely this as he understood very well that Catholics in this country were being coopted by the prevailing ethos of pluralism, religious indifferentism, religious liberty, materialism and relativism into viewing the Church through the eyes of "democracy" rather than viewing the world through the eyes of the true Faith:

 

As regards civil affairs, experience has shown how important it is that the citizens should be upright and virtuous. In a free State, unless justice be generally cultivated, unless the people be repeatedly and diligently urged to observe the precepts and laws of the Gospel, liberty itself may be pernicious. Let those of the clergy, therefore, who are occupied with the instruction of the multitude, treat plainly this topic of the duties of citizens, so that all may understand and feel the necessity, in political life, of conscientiousness, self restraint, and integrity; for that cannot be lawful in public which is unlawful in private affairs. On this whole subject there are to be found, as you know, in the encyclical letters written by Us from time to time in the course of Our pontificate, many things which Catholics should attend to and observe. In these writings and expositions We have treated of human liberty, of the chief Christian duties, of civil government, and of the Christian constitution of States, drawing Our principles as well from the teaching of the Gospels as from reason. They, then, who wish to be good citizens and discharge their duties faithfully may readily learn from Our Letters the ideal of an upright life. In like manner, let the priests be persistent in keeping before the minds of the people the enactments of the Third Council of Baltimore, particularly those which inculcate the virtue of temperance, the frequent use of the sacraments and the observance of the just laws and institutions of the Republic. (Pope Leo XIII, Longiqua Oceani, January 6, 1895.)

 

It is only natural that one who has been shaped by the counterfeit church of conciliarism's "official reconciliation" with the "principles of the new era that began in 1789" should consider himself "free" to believe in the statist policies of his political patron from the naturalist "left," wrapping himself up in all manner of self-righteous, sanctimonious rhetoric to hide the fact he believes that men who support and make possible the shedding of innocent blood are qualified to hold public office and to pursue the common temporal good of nations.

Just in case Ambassador Kmiec is not "up to speed" on these articles (my tongue is indeed planted firmly in my cheek yet again), permit me to introduce him to these words of Pope Pius XI that apply to him as he has attempted to convince Catholics to vote for candidates who stand condemned by the following words:

Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent, and this all the more so since those whose lives are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves. Among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates not only do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors or of others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven. (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930.)

 

It is impossible for anyone to advance the common temporal good under the slogan of "social justice" so as to advance what is considered by most Americans today to be the principle end of government, the advancement of material prosperity, to establish the conditions for authentic justice as all disorder in the world, bar none, is the result of the sins of men that imposed Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the unspeakable sufferings that He endured as He underwent His fearful Passion and Death to redeem us. Just as Mortal Sin and Sanctifying Grace cannot coexist in the same soul, so is it the case that the promotion under cover of the civil law and throughout what passes for "popular culture" of what are, in the objective order of things, Mortal Sins, can produce only disorder and chaos in the lives of men and their nations.

No nation is "free" to ignore the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law as they have been entrusted by Our Divine Redeemer exclusively to His Catholic Church for their eternal safekeeping and infallible explication. To follow any other path than than traced out for us by Our Lord as He walked on the Via Dolorosa to Calvary is to follow the devil to Hell as men and their nations fall into utter ruin:

The more closely the temporal power of a nation aligns itself with the spiritual, and the more it fosters and promotes the latter, by so much the more it contributes to the conservation of the commonwealth. For it is the aim of the ecclesiastical authority by the use of spiritual means, to form good Christians in accordance with its own particular end and object; and in doing this it helps at the same time to form good citizens, and prepares them to meet their obligations as members of a civil society. This follows of necessity because in the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same thing. How grave therefore is the error of those who separate things so closely united, and who think that they can produce good citizens by ways and methods other than those which make for the formation of good Christians. For, let human prudence say what it likes and reason as it pleases, it is impossible to produce true temporal peace and tranquillity by things repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity. (Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, quoted by Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1929.)

This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty. (Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832.)

For you well know, venerable brethren, that at this time men are found not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of "naturalism," as they call it, dare to teach that "the best constitution of public society and (also) civil progress altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without regard being had to religion any more than if it did not exist; or, at least, without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones." And, against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church, and of the Holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that "that is the best condition of civil society, in which no duty is recognized, as attached to the civil power, of restraining by enacted penalties, offenders against the Catholic religion, except so far as public peace may require." From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity," viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way." But, while they rashly affirm this, they do not think and consider that they are preaching "liberty of perdition;" and that "if human arguments are always allowed free room for discussion, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist truth, and to trust in the flowing speech of human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most injurious babbling."

And, since where religion has been removed from civil society, and the doctrine and authority of divine revelation repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is darkened and lost, and the place of true justice and legitimate right is supplied by material force, thence it appears why it is that some, utterly neglecting and disregarding the surest principles of sound reason, dare to proclaim that "the people's will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right." But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests? (Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura, December 8, 1864.)

 

There! The popes--and other learned Catholic writers--have told us the simple truth: there can be no true temporal prosperity if men are consumed with their own pleasures and interests as they violate God's Commandments. What more is there to say. More of true substance, that of Catholic truth, is contained in the above quotations than can be found in any of TelePrompTer-fed rhetoric and statist policies of the man so heralded by Douglas Kmiec for his "leadership," Barack Hussein Obama.

The existence of chemical and surgical baby-killing under cover of the civil law is the logical, inexorable result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolt and cemented in place by the rise of Judeo-Masonry and the scores of naturalistic "philosophies" and ideologies spawned thereby. There is no other way to retard this evil than by praying and working for the conversion of the United States of America to the true Faith, something that is, of course, reject by the conciliar revolutionaries as thoroughly unnecessary, if not actually opposed to what they think and contend is Catholic teaching.

And this, you see, is what makes it so difficult for the likes of allegedly "pro-life" and "devout" Catholics to to accept the authentic teaching of Holy Mother Church concerning the obligation of the civil state to recognize her as the true religion and to accord her the favor and the protect of the laws. How can ordinary Catholics accept and then live in accordance with the truth when they have never learned it? Or, to put it another and much more blunt way, how do we think we are going to fight the inexorable march of the naturalists of the statist variety when there have been figures of Antichrist serving as alleged "popes" of what is seen by most people in the world to be the Catholic Church, figures of Antichrist who give their "blessings" to statists even though they, the statists, may happen to support baby-killing? It is very simple: those who attack the Deposit of Faith as they wear the vestments and claim to hold the offices as shepherds of the Catholic Church make it more possible for those who reject the Faith in Its entirety to prevail in the world. This is really, really simple to understand.

We must nevertheless fulfill our duties as Catholics to denounce unjust laws and those who support them as we pray and make sacrifices for the conversion of our fellow citizens and of our very nation to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

Pope Leo XIII explained our duties in this regard in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890:

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world." Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error.

Those caught up in the Americanist trap are constantly diverted from the time they could spend before Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament in prayer and the number of Rosaries they could pray each day in order to delude themselves into thinking that their concerted, well-intentioned "action" is going to make a "difference" in the country. It hasn't in the past. It won't now.

The petty politicians of today will pass. Their naturalistic ideologies (conservatism, liberalism, capitalism, socialism, communism, utilitarianism, libertarianism, positivism, relativism, materialism, etc.) will pass, each and every one of them. What will replace them? Who will replace these petty politicians?

Consider these words spoken to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Christ the King, Himself:

"I will reign in spite of all who oppose Me." (quoted in: The Right Reverend Emile Bougaud. The Life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, reprinted by TAN Books and Publishers in 1990, p. 361.)

 

May we never stand in opposition to the Social Reign of Christ the King and to Mary our Immaculate Queen, especially by serving as apologists for complete and thorough pro-aborts and statists such as Barack Hussein Obama as has Douglas Kmiec and so many conciliar "bishops" in this country have done n the past three years. May we stand by the side of Our Lady during the Paschal Triduum that begins tomorrow morning, mourning over what our owns sins caused her Divine Son and her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart to suffer as our very salvation was wrought for us by that same Christ the King on the wood of the Holy Cross.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon, a triumph that will be heralded by unceasing shouts of:

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

 

Saint Joseph, Patron of Departing Souls, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints

Appendix

Another Thumbnail Sketch of the Heresy of Americanism

Here is what I wrote about Americanism by way of summary form in early-2008, in Babbling Inanities of Americanism, by way of providing yet another thumbnail sketch of the heresy of Americanism that has produced so many Catholics who have played the roles of Judas Iscariots and/or Pontius Pilates in public life in the United States of America.

 

Americanism is the exaltation of the spirit of individual human abilities to "build" the "better world" without a complete and humble submission to everything contained in the Deposit of Faith that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man in His Most Blessed Mother's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of the God the Holy Ghost, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church that He Himself created upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope. It is thus the exaltation of religious indifferentism (the belief that it doesn't matter what religion one belongs to, if any religion at all, as long as one is a "good" person) over the necessity of belief in the one and only true Faith, Catholicism.

Have you ever seen the following saying on the back of a tractor-trailer truck? "Start your week right: Attend the Church of your choice." This is an expression of pure, unadulterated Americanism, the likes of which have been condemned by pope after pope prior to 1958 in no certain terms, no ambiguity, no nuance, no concessions to any false concept known as the "new evangelization," no disparagement of proselytism, no mention of engaging in "dialogue" with unbelievers, no efforts to discourage efforts to convert Protestants. . . .

Americanism is the exaltation of the measure of personal and national greatness on the basis of naturalistic standards over the necessity of referring all things at all times to the final end of man, the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for all eternity. It is thus the exaltation of the Judeo-Masonic spirit of  "brotherhood" over the Catholic teaching of the Communion of the Saints.

Americanism is the exaltation of the spirit of egalitarianism over the truth of the hierarchy that exists in the Order of Creation and in the Order of Grace, that is, the Order of Redemption, making it necessary for there to a separation of Church and State in order that "free men" can choose for themselves how to live. Americanism is, all of its invocations of a generic "God" notwithstanding, the exaltation of the deification of man over man's due submission to God and the authority of His true Church in all that pertains to the good of souls and to matters of fundamental justice in according with the binding precepts of His Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law.

Americanism is the exaltation of the spirit of "civil" and "religious" liberty" over the true sense of liberty that comes only from the Catholic Faith. That is, Americanism is the exaltation of human independence over a due submission to and reliance upon the magisterial authority of the Catholic Church that sees in the Cross the very means by which we are truly free, that is, free from an enslavement to the power of sin and eternal death.

Americanism is the exaltation of individualism over the due submission that we must render in all humility to Christ the King as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through the Catholic Church. Americanism thus feeds into Protestant Pentecostalism and the whole ethos of the "Catholic Charismatic Renewal" as it eschews a complete submission of one's mind and will to the binding teaching of Holy Mother Church's magisterium in favor of an "individual relationship" with God the Holy Ghost whereby people think that they have a "private pipeline" to God and can decide for themselves what part of the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church they will and will not follow. . . .

Americanism represents the exaltation the mania of "action" divorced from prayer, making false distinctions between "active" and "passive" virtue," leading many Catholics to consider praying Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary, for example, as "doing nothing" to help one's country. Pope Leo XIII and Saint Pius X both discussed this aspect of Americanism:

 

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. "Virtue," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "designates the perfection of some faculty, but end of such faculty is an act, and an act of virtue is naught else than the good use of free will," acting, that is to say, under the grace of God if the act be one of supernatural virtue.

He alone could wish that some Christian virtues be adapted to certain times and different ones for other times who is unmindful of the apostle's words: "That those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be made conformable to the image of His Son."- Romans viii, 29. 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, "for He is yesterday and to-day and the same forever."-Hebrews xiii, 8. To the men of all ages was the precept given: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart."-Matt. xi, 29.

To every age has He been made manifest to us as obedient even unto death; in every age the apostle's dictum has its force: "Those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences." 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.

From this disregard of the - angelical virtues, erroneously styled passive, the step was a short one to a contempt of the religious life which has in some degree taken hold of minds. That such a value is generally held by the upholders of new views, we infer from certain statements concerning the vows which religious orders take. 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 ›o 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; nor without good cause, for those who under the divine call have freely embraced that state of life did not content themselves with the observance of precepts, but, going forward to the evangelical counsels, showed themselves ready and valiant soldiers of Christ. Shall we judge this to be a characteristic of weak minds, or shall we say that it is useless or hurtful to a more perfect state of life?

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. Did not your country, the United States, derive the beginnings both of faith and of culture from the children of these religious families? to one of whom but very lately, a thing greatly to your praise, you have decreed that a statue be publicly erected. And even at the present time wherever the religious families are found, how speedy and yet how fruitful a harvest of good works do they not bring forth! How very many leave home and seek strange lands to impart the truth of the gospel and to widen the bounds of civilization; and this they do with the greatest cheerfulness amid manifold dangers! Out of their number not less, indeed, than from the rest of the clergy, the Christian world finds the preachers of God's word, the directors of conscience, the teachers of youth and the Church itself the examples of all sanctity.

Nor should any difference of praise be made between those who follow the active state of life and those others who, charmed with solitude, give themselves to prayer and bodily mortification. And how much, indeed, of good report these have merited, and do merit, is known surely to all who do not forget that the "continual prayer of the just man" avails to placate and to bring down the blessings of heaven when to such prayers bodily mortification is added.

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. But rather, since mankind are more disposed at the present time to indulge themselves in pleasures, let those be held in greater esteem "who having left all things have followed Christ." (Pope Leo XIII, Testem Benevolentiae, January 22, 1899.)

With regard to morals, they [the Modernists] adopt the principle of the Americanists, that the active virtues are more important than the passive, and are to be more encouraged in practice. (Pope Saint Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, September 8, 1907.)

Americanism breeds the bubbling inanities that are spoken constantly by the average citizen and by those in public life. . . .

It is important to make some careful distinctions when discussing the heresy of Americanism:

First, the Catholic Church's condemnation of the heresy of Americanism has nothing to do with whether the conditions extant in the thirteen English colonies situated alongside the eastern seaboard of what became the United States of America justified a revolt from the authority of King George III. This is a matter about which the Church has nothing to say. Arguments could be made in support of a revolt. Arguments could be made against such a revolt. It is interesting to note, however, that only about a third of the colonists supported a break from the United Kingdom in 1776 and that many of those who did not support the revolt were harassed rather mercilessly by the self-styled "patriots" (gee, where have we seen this phenomenon lately?). The Americanist heresy, however, has nothing to do with a debate over whether the conditions of a justified revolt, which are more or less synonymous with the tenets of the Theory of the Just War, existed in the thirteen English colonies in what became the United States of America.

Second, the Catholic Church's condemnation of the heresy of American has nothing to do with the specific institutional arrangements created by the Constitution of the United States of America. Holy Mother Church has taught from time immemorial that she can adapt herself to any legitimate form of government provided that she be recognized as the true Church and that she be accorded the ultimate right, following the discharge of her Indirect Power of teaching and preaching and exhortation, to interpose herself, albeit rarely and judiciously, with the civil authorities when the good of souls demands her motherly intervention. Holy Mother Church, however, has no specific models of government to which men must adhere. She can adapt herself to a monarchy or to a presidential-congressional or parliamentary-ministerial form or to some other sort of government.

So many Americanists emote about these red herrings that have nothing to do with Americanism at all. Those who want to continue to emote can do so. Those who want to understand why Americanism is a heresy can continue to read this article.

What is at issue in the Americanist heresy are the false principles upon which the American founding were premised and how those false principles adversely influence the minds, hearts and souls of Catholics in the United States of America to view the Church through the eyes of the world rather than viewing the world through the eyes of the true Faith. These false principles have convinced generations upon generations of Catholics in the United States of America to look to partisan politics as the means (at first) for their upward mobility in American society and then as the means by which social problems can be resolved, usually by means of the massive expansion of the size and power of all levels of government (Federal, state and local) in full violation of the Natural Law principle of subsidiarity and by the use of the confiscatory taxing power of the civil state. Having been convinced of the basic compatibility of pluralist paradigm with the Faith, Catholics of a "leftist" bent consider the Democrat Party to be the true secular "church," outside of which there can be no secular "salvation."  (Do you get it now, oh doubtful readers who are still struggling with this heresy?)