Join us LIVE and ask your questions to Michael Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute

What happens when love of country collides with the demands of the Catholic faith?

In this episode of Catholic Unscripted, Katherine Bennett and Mark Lambert are joined by Michael Hichborn for a fascinating and provocative discussion recorded during their visit to the United States.

After a remarkable behind-the-scenes tour of the US Capitol, Katherine and Mark were struck by the prominence of Masonic imagery and symbolism woven into the architecture and history of Washington, D.C. It raised a much bigger question: how should Catholics understand the American founding, its emphasis on religious liberty, and the influence of Enlightenment and Masonic ideas?

Michael Hichborn joins us to unpack the history and philosophy of Freemasonry and to explain why the Catholic Church has consistently regarded membership of Masonic organisations as incompatible with the Catholic faith.

The conversation ranges widely — from the unfinished pyramid and the “all-seeing eye” to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the Hellfire Club; from Enlightenment notions of freedom to contraception, feminism and the sexual revolution; and ultimately to one of the defining questions of the modern West: can a society survive when freedom is detached from objective moral truth?

We also consider whether religious liberty can really accommodate fundamentally contradictory beliefs, why modern societies increasingly struggle to distinguish liberty from licence, and how Catholics can remain genuinely patriotic without allowing national identity or political ideology to take the place of the Faith.

Michael concludes with an important distinction: patriotism is not simply love of government or political institutions. It is love of one's country, its people and its good. For the Catholic, that means desiring above all the true good — and ultimately the salvation — of our neighbour.

In this conversation:
Why the Catholic Church regards Freemasonry as incompatible with Catholicism
The philosophy of naturalism and the Masonic conception of man
Masonic symbolism in Washington, D.C.
The unfinished pyramid and the “all-seeing eye”
George Washington, Freemasonry and the founding of America
The difference between Christian and Masonic symbolism
The Enlightenment and the rejection of religious authority
Religious freedom: genuine liberty or licence?
Benjamin Franklin and the Hellfire Club
The relationship between bad philosophy and moral decline
Contraception, feminism and the sexual revolution
Why objective moral truth matters to political freedom
Can contradictory religious and moral systems coexist?
Christ's words that He came to “bring a sword”
Patriotism versus political ideology
How Catholics can love their country while remaining Catholic first
The intriguing tradition surrounding George Washington and a possible deathbed conversion
Chapters

00:00 Welcome to Catholic Unscripted and Michael Hichborn
00:49 Behind the scenes at the US Capitol
02:22 Why talk about Freemasonry?
03:22 What actually is Freemasonry?
04:10 Naturalism, salvation and the Tower of Babel
05:22 Masonic oaths, rituals and occult claims
~10:00 Masonic imagery inside Washington, D.C.
~12:00 The unfinished pyramid versus Christian Trinitarian imagery
~15:00 The origins of Freemasonry and the Enlightenment
~19:00 Washington, the Founding Fathers and Masonic symbolism
~24:00 What does “freedom” really mean?
~27:00 Benjamin Franklin and the Hellfire Club
~30:00 The sexual revolution, contraception and feminism
~33:00 Moral corruption and the decline of civilisation
~36:00 Can Christianity and radically opposing beliefs coexist?
~40:00 Objective truth and the dictatorship of relativism
~43:00 Did Jesus really come to “bring a sword”?
~46:00 Can you be a patriotic American and a Catholic first?
~49:00 George Washington and the possibility of a Catholic conversion

This is a conversation about America, but the questions go far beyond America. What is freedom for? Can liberty survive without truth? And when faith, politics and national identity come into conflict, which one comes first?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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