The hymn America the Beautiful seems to be controversial when sung within a Catholic church. But it is hard to discern why:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America contains many good things; it would be hard to contest that. And if it were contested, I could simply look out of my window and see them for myself.

America! America!

Here some seem to think that the words mean that the hymn is addressed to something non-existent thing that is an idol. But it's simply addressed to people in America.

God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

After setting out some of the good things it possesses, the writer now implores God to give grace as well to America. It's a hymn. It's a prayer. Although all those physical things mentioned at the beginning of the hymn are genuinely good, but they need to be completed, crowned, by what is most important: complete brotherhood throughout the country. And it is God that is the source of that.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

Like good verse, more than one thing is referred to here: both the westward trek (by foot, or wagon, or train) in America's history — but, but more importantly, also the repeated voices calling for freedom ("stern", "stress", "beat").

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

But again, appeal is made to God. Flaws still exist: souls lack self-control: freedom must be embedded in the people. This is not a perfect America, and it needs God.

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!

Gaining freedom may require sacrifice, and the writer refers to John 15:13.

May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

But still God is needed to refine what good is possessed, so that success is defined as nobleness (a personal quality, and not an external possession), and gains are not physical or financial, but measured by God.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

And here the writer looks forward past any success that may be had in this world, to a future Heavenly city ("beyond the years", "undimmed by tears" as in Rev 21:1-4).

God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

Again the writer refers through but past any history of discovery in America, and asks for God-given paths through all the wilds that still exist in thinking.

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life !

Both wars are referred to, the Revolutionary and the Civil; sacrifices for freedom.

God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

And still the writer asks for flaws to be fixed, and a selfish America to be given grace.

Who could walk away from such sentiments? Would they not walk away from both America and the Church?

(Written July 4th 2007, within sight of Pike's Peak, and within sight of the amber waves, purple mountains, and fruited plains, by someone not in the slightest American.)