So here's my question. To comply with what Pope Leo teaches, should Congress amend the Constitution to remove its religiously indifferentirst First Amendment and adopt Catholicism as the State religion? During a lecture I heard on YouTube, a hero of mine, Fr. Gregory Hesse says that America needs that amendment because in our religiously diverse country, everyone needs to get along. But I disagree because in a Catholic confessional state, non-Catholics may practice their religions because it's immoral to force those people to become Catholic. Your thoughts?
In theory, America, like all countries, should have Catholicism as the state religion. The principle of separation of church and state is an error. Ideally the state should be run according to the true religion, i.e. Catholicism.
In practice, many, probably most, countries would not accept Catholicism as the state religion. This means tolerating a less than ideal situation.
Many Catholics (this seems to be Poche's view and perhaps Fr. Hesse's) think that we should encourage the separation of church and state because this works to the advantage of Catholics in non-Catholic countries. This is arguably the teaching of Vatican II. In effect, this view encourages people to believe an error in the hopes that Catholics will benefit.
This seems to me to be a case of doing evil that good may come of it. How could it be right to encourage people to believe a false principle? On the other hand, I can see making a case for the position that, if the state religion is not Catholicism, it is better to separate church and state.