Can Catholics love America?

You'd not think so to read some on the Catholic blogosphere.  But then the blogosphere is at once a poor gauge for understanding reality, yet also a portent of things to come, because it is the petri dish from which idiocy and vileness will grow alongside good and solid ideals.  

Now it's no shock to students of history that the Catholic Church has had a love/hate relationship with the US and, in fact, with all the Democratic revolutions of the Enlightenment Age.  And of course, given the decay and death infecting the Western Tradition, there's an argument to be made.

But it doesn't have to be that way.  Part of the reason why we are dying is because we've spent so much time focusing on the bad, and being forced to focus on the bad by those who would exploit the bad to ramrod their agendas, we've lost the ability to be proud of our nation.  Even I feel at times a bit silly for speaking of my love of country.  

Yes, admitting to and learning from past errors and even evils is a necessary part of love of country.  But it can go too far.  Just like confessing our sins is a good thing.  Dwelling on them, refusing forgiveness and absolution, and eventually committing suicide out of despair is a bad thing.  

And sometimes those on the Catholic blogosphere seem to lose track of when and where these lines should be drawn.  So here is Fr. Dwight Longenecker shedding some typically reasonable insight.  It's OK to look at the blessings while never forgetting our responsibilities.  And sometimes, just a good old Favorite Things list of why this is still an exceptional experiment in the history of human societies can do the mind good.  Read and enjoy, and Happy 4th of July.  Off to the patriotic specials, documentaries, and feasting with families in a (still) free nation.