Skip links

Kresta in the Afternoon – September 27, 2023 – Hour 1

Many colonial thinkers were skeptical of Catholics’ ability to stay loyal to both country and Church. How did they overcome this bias? We talk with Michael Breidenbach.

 

Colonial Catholics and the Transformation of Liberty

Colonial Catholics were viewed with great suspicion. Many thinkers of the time doubted Catholics’ ability to separate country from pope, and thus declared them to be “dangerous until proven loyal.” Yet Catholics went on to sign the Declaration of Independence and helped draft the First Amendment. We talk with Michael Breidenbach about how those colonial Catholics transformed the idea of liberty.

Michael D. Breidenbach is the author of Our Dear-Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America. He is Chair of the History Department and Associate Professor of History at Ave Maria University and coeditor of The Cambridge Companion to the First Amendment and Religious Liberty. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and First Things.
Share with Friends: