President Trump has proposed a National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture garden honoring 250 “great figures of American history.” Part of the motivation for such a garden is to respond in a positive way in a time when, in the President’s words, “Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.” He has pledged to build “a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever lived.” On the National Garden, he went on to say, “the devastation and discord of this moment will be overcome with abiding love of country and lasting patriotism.”
The President’s proposal calls for 250 statues of American heroes in 2026 honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Catholics are well represented. They include William F. Buckley, Clare Booth Luce, Antonin Scalia, Thomas Merton, Frank Capra, Vince Lombardi, Dorothy Day, Charles Carroll (the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence), Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, Jesuit Father John Carroll, S. J., the first Archbishop in the United States, and the following American saints: Katherine Drexel, Junipero Serra, John von Neumann, Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Kateri Tekatkwitha.
The selection of some of the honorees has been met with criticism. Nonetheless the selection of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton. J. Sheen—who’s birthday is May 8—should be applauded and free from any controversy. Sheen proudly combined his Catholicism with his patriotism, something that was questioned during his tenure and has been questioned throughout the history of America. The British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, for example, stated that a grave danger faced America, for the time will come when it will be Catholic!
In 1932 Rev. Fulton J. Sheen delivered a talk on patriotism on the Catholic Hour, sponsored by the National Council of Catholic Men with the co-operation of the National Broadcasting System (NBC) and its Associated Stations. He began by pointing out the various reasons why many people felt that America and Catholicism were incompatible with each other. He cited the Church’s opposition to divorce at a time when divorce was readily accepted by American society. He mentioned how Catholicism was regarded with suspicion since it accepted the Vicar of Christ who resided in Vatican City. He also drew attention to the fact that the Church was criticized since her belief in another world might cause her to neglect to the needs of the present one. In addition, he alluded to the fact that because the Church claimed to be a bearer of truth, it was allegedly incompatible with a democratic society.
The presumed incompatibilities that Sheen cited in 1932 are more vehement in America today given the broad acceptance of abortion, same-sex marriage, gender confusion, the pandemic of pornography, and euthanasia. Yet, the main point of his address, given nearly a hundred years ago, was that the Catholic Church has always been unwaveringly patriotic. America believes in equality, as written in the Declaration of Independence. But how does this equality come about? Surely, America has struggled mightily to achieve this ideal. “There is only one foundation for equality,” Sheen declares, “and that is the Catholic doctrine that all men have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that all men have been called to share his life, and that President and citizen, poor and rich, the mighty and the lowly, have been thought so much worth while that Christ would have died for the least of them.” Equality extends to “the beggar in the Bowery and the man in the gilded apartment.” Democratic equality, so difficult to achieve through political machinations, looks for a higher solution. It is the Catholic Church that stands for the love, peace, and brotherhood that any society so urgently desires.
Catholicism and America are not incompatible, as it is often believed. The Ku Klux Klan believed fanatically that America was only for Americans. Thus, they excluded blacks with an African heritage and Catholics with a connection to Rome. Their fanaticism led to murder in some cases. It is clear today, however, that patriotism can hardly be ascribed to the members of the Klan while it is increasingly clear that Catholics can be patriotic. This is attested to by the fact that two candidates, popularly regarded as Catholics, were elected to the White House.
The selection of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as an American Hero is fully justified. Furthermore, his selection helps pave the way for other Catholics to understand that they do not need to compromise their faith in order to be American patriots. In fact, they can realize that being authentically Catholic allows them to be splendid American patriots, and even heroes.
In closing his 1932 address, Bishop Sheen made the comment that “Catholics will never love America because it is great, but America will be great because Catholics love her.”
The patriotic expression, “God shed his grace on thee,” from America the Beautiful, welcomes divine assistance. It affirms the compatibility of the secular and the spiritual. The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is sacred and that children are a blessing. The family is the basic unit of society. What damages the family damages the future. Catholicism is the great protector of the future. In strengthening the future by strengthening the family, as Sheen stated in 1932, “the Church is making it [America] stable enough to endure, that in the centuries to come it may draw down upon itself the blessings of a pleased and Almighty Father.”
