Yeah, that's the point that leaped out at me, too, and about which I find peculiar, AP (the "religious writer" at that) headlining some "American Church" being "roil(ed)" by a Vatican instruction...it suggests a disconect and separation that doesn't exist.
What and who IS "roiled" is liberals who want to force ideologies and cultural issues throughout the rest of population...to overrule the Freedom of Religion based upon cultural trends and insistences.
I'm proud of the Pope for this decision, truly proud. AND I'm an American, live here, attend church here, don't consider any "American Church" other than my local Catholic parish as place of worship, among other Catholic churces I attend now and then. The writer is just trying to get an argument going, as if it's the Vatican against "America."