Copyright holder: Tyndale University, 3377 Bayview Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2M 3S4 Att.: Library Director, J. William Horsey Library Copyright: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Copyright license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License Citation: Pedlar, James E. “Testem Benevolentiae and Pope Leo XIII,” in The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, ed. George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport, 2286-2287. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ***** Begin Content ****** TYNDALE UNIVERSITY 3377 Bayview Avenue Toronto, ON M2M 3S4 TEL: 416.226.6620 www.tyndale.ca Note: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Pedlar, James E. “Testem Benevolentiae and Pope Leo XIII,” in The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, ed. George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport, 2286-2287. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. [ Citation Page ] [ Page ] 2286 Testem Benevolentiae and Pope Leo XIII Testem Benevolentiae was an apostolic letter of Pope Leo XII, addressed to Archbishop James Cardinal Gibbons of Balti- more, and published on January 22, 1899. The letter dealt with the Americanist controversy, which concerned the degree to which the Catholic church should affirm and adapt to American culture and political institutions. The Context Late nineteenth-century Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic were divided between progressive and conservative camps, with the progressive camp viewing American sepa- ration of church and state as a solution to the struggles of European Catholicism. More conservative Catholics, reeling from decades of immense political changes in continental Europe that had undermined the church’s influence, saw American democratic values as allied with the Republican- ism, which they believed to be at the center of their own woes. The debate came to a head when progressive Abbé Felix Klein produced a loose translation of Walter Elliott’s biography of Isaac Hecker (1819-1888), founder of the Pau- list Fathers. Klien presented Hecker as the ideal priest and a hero for the progressive agenda. Abbe Charles Maignen, staunch Catholic monarchist, wrote a rebuttal attacking Hecker, based solely on Klein’s biography. When Maignen’s book received the imprimatur of the pope’s theologian, Albert Lepidi, progressive American bishops objected, and the senior-ranking American Cardinal Gibbons forwarded a protest to the Vatican. Positions Condemned Thus Leo XIII intervened in the situation with Testem Benev- olentiae. The letter does not condemn Hecker himself, but refers to the French translation of his biography as a source of controversy. The letter criticizes those who believe that the church should seek to attract members by introducing greater liberty for individual Catholics at the expense of the exercise of ecclesiastical power, and censures several errors associated with such a move. These include the rejection of external authority and guidance, the elevation of natural virtues over supernatural virtues, a distinction between active and passive virtues, a disdain for the religious life, a suggestion that religious life contributes little to the life of [ Page ] 2287 the church, and the idea that past methods of communicat- ing the faith must be abandoned. The letter closes by stating that it is acceptable to hold to an Americanism which values praiseworthy aspects of American culture, but any Ameri- canism which leads to the condemned errors, or seeks to make the American Catholic Church different from the rest of the Catholic church, should be rejected. Legacy in US Catholicism Testem Benevolentiae is a landmark document in the history of US Catholicism, and signals the beginning of a period in which progressive Catholic views were stifled and marginal- ized. Although Hecker was not condemned, many associated him with supposedly heretical views. Catholic theologians in the early twentieth century, therefore, hesitated to advance views that advocated any kind of accommodation to con- temporary culture. This trend continued and intensified after the condemnation of modernism by Pius X in 1907. As the Catholic church assumed a more open posture in the mid-twentieth century, scholars began to revisit the debate, and a more nuanced portrait of Hecker and the broader Americanist movement emerged. References and Resources Holden, Vincent F. “A Myth in ‘LAméricanisme.’” The Catholic His- torical Review 31, no. 2 (1945): 154-170. McAvoy, Thomas T. 1957. The Great Crisis in American Catholic History: 1895-1900. Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery Company. Portier, William L. 1983. “Isaac Hecker and Testem Benevolentiae: A Study in Theological Pluralism.” In Hecker Studies: Essays on the Thought of Isaac Hecker, edited by John Farina, 11-48. Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press. —James E. Pedlar ***** This is the end of the e-text. 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