Benedict XVI and American Patriotism, by Susan Hanssen

When Benedict XVI visited the United States in 2008, he repeatedly expressed his admiration for America’s pluralistic society and respect for religious liberty. Benedict XVI and John Paul II shared a vision of the United States as the opponent of totalitarianism that had been shaped profoundly by their own experience of Nazi Germany and Communist Poland.

The death of Benedict XVI is a marker of the death of the “Greatest Generation,” a generational shift we have been culturally experiencing for the 20 years that have opened this century. The generation who lived through the Great Depression in the 1930s, World War II in the 1940s, and the beginnings of the Cold War in the 1950s developed a world view which is increasingly sidelined and undermined, but which still resonates powerfully with many. …

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