Mark Shea on "Conservative American Catholics"

Americanism, don’t let it be forgotten, is a heresy. The belief that we are better catechized by the western apostles of Caesar and Mammon and the gospel of Salvation through Democratic Capitalism, Hedonism and Imperial Militarism than by Holy Church is as toxic as it ever was.

I *expect* the Left to have no serious regard for the Church’s teaching when it comes to things that interfere with ideology. That’s why I don’t bother trying to help them get their act together and win. I don’t want them to win. But when alleged conservative Catholics tell me that they would rather get their social teaching from a talking hairdo on FOX than from the bishops, when they tell me that it is “moralistic” not to be willing to put your soul at risk of the fires of hell by committing what used to be called “war crimes”, when they make excuses for buffoons who think saluting the brave idealists of the Waffen SS with their sons is a sure fire indication of sound judgment—and that any criticism of this makes one vehemently suspect of heresy and a traitor to the Faith—I can only say that the Right is becoming as mindlessly ideological as the Left. And ideology is not the Faith.

SOURCE: National Catholic Register October 18, 2010.