They include democracy, civil liberties and a market economy. And historically, it cannot be denied that liberalism was a major contributing factor in the shaping of America's most important social and political institutions. But what the Church condemns in liberalism is not the institutions of democratic capitalism. Indeed, it has judged those institutions in themselves to be good and in conformity with human dignity. What is in question is the ethical and cultural system which produces these institutions, the spirit which animates them, the philosophic premises which sustain them.
Liberalism is admittedly one strong current in the shaping of American culture.
I refuse to grant that American culture is simply liberalism incarnate. I refuse to grant that Christians live in America only on sufferance, only so long as we burn our incense before the altars of the liberal idols. Liberalism has not been and is not now the only formative influence shaping American culture. Since Columbus and even since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock and Lord Baltimore America has been part of Christendom. Historically, Christianity has been at least as strong an influence in the shaping of American culture as has liberalism.