The Catholic Church’s Summer of 1776: A Naturalistic Whitewash of the Americanist Apostasy
The National Catholic Register portal (July 6, 2026) publishes a commentary by Bronwen McShea, a historian affiliated with the conciliar structures (Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC), titled “The Catholic Church’s Summer of 1776.” The article surveys the global Catholic landscape of 1776 — Pius VI’s struggles with the Jesuit suppression and regalist courts, missionary activity in Asia and Africa, the Spanish Franciscan foundation of San Francisco, and the solitary Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. It concludes with a triumphalist celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, hailing the “prominent role” of American Catholics, the “Catholic-convert vice-president” J.D. Vance, and the “Chicago-born pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) as the providential fulfillment of Carroll’s legacy. This exercise in historical curation is not a work of Catholic history but a manifesto of Americanism: it baptizes the Masonic Republic of 1776 and legitimizes the conciliar usurpation of 1958 under the guise of a providential narrative.