Gibbons wrote, "I do not believe that there is a bishop, priest, or even a layman in this country who knows his religion and utters such enormities.  No, this is not, has never been, and will never be our 'Americanism.'"
Despite Gibbons' reassurances, the Paulists withdrew Hecker's biography from publication.  Eventually, the Americanist controversy ended. But it had proven to the American Catholic public that American Catholicism was still suspect in Rome's eyes. 
And it soon became obvious to both proponents and critics of the 'fortress mentality' that a people who fearfully hide behind walls cannot bring the gospel to the world.  By hiding in the fortress of past ideas, the Catholic Church was, in effect, admitting defeat. Then, just like TODAY, it was saying, "The world's ideas are so frightening and shocking, that all we can do is hide our heads in the sand and hope the world goes away."

Is this why the agenda for the USCCB's 2017 meeting so "piddling"?