The Eclipse of the Common Good: How American Nationalism Overcame Catholic Social Teaching in the 20th Century and How the 21st Century Might Reclaim It

This paper examines the theological, historical, and sociopolitical contours of American nationalism through a comparative study of Roman Catholics and Native Americans—two groups historically positioned as outsiders to the United States’ national self-conception, but into which Catholicism has successfully entered. It enquires into this success by establishing that American nationalism possesses a tripartite logic: (1) selective racial and religious superiority, (2) economic and military success read as divine blessing; and (3) advancing a teleological mission of global salvation. While white Roman Catholics were once viewed as anti-messianic threats, they eventually achieved integration by finding common enemies and warring to protect the American project and hierarchies, while Native Americans, by contrast, remain largely excluded, their presence disrupting foundational myths of nationalism. To evaluate this phenomena, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is deployed, using the principles of human dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity to critique nationalism’s pillars of race, wealth, and militarism with a vision of the universal common good. In doing so, CST challenges any theological justification for exceptionalism, reclaims a global moral horizon, and refuses the role that Catholicism might play in US—or any—nationalisms.