[sinkspur]

In this order of speculative ideas, Catholics, like all other citizens, are free to prefer one form of government to another precisely because no one of these social forms is, in itself, opposed to the principles of sound reason nor to the maxims of Christian doctrine.

So, Leo XIII, in the latter half of the 19th century, said that American Catholics are free to favor a Democratic Republic?

Imagine that!!

[gbcdoj]

So, Leo XIII, in the latter half of the 19th century, said that American Catholics are free to favor a Democratic Republic?

In the same Encyclical, Leo said "though these advantages cannot justify the false principle of separation nor authorize its defence, they nevertheless render worthy of toleration a situation which, practically, might be worse."

And in Testem Benevolentiae, he wrote:

From the foregoing it is manifest, beloved son, that we are not able to give approval to those views which, in their collective sense, are called by some "Americanism." But if by this name are to be understood certain endowments of mind which belong to the American people, just as other characteristics belong to various other nations, and if, moreover, by it is designated your political condition and the laws and customs by which you are governed, there is no reason to take exception to the name.

The union of Church and State is an ideal. Obviously this is impossible in the case of a democratic republic where the majority of citizens are not Catholic. What must be affirmed, according to Catholic doctrine, is that union is the ideal, even if circumstances combine to make that union impossible in the present.

[pascendi]

"So, Leo XIII, in the latter half of the 19th century, said that American Catholics are free to favor a Democratic Republic?"

That's not what it said.