There is to be found a medieval legal insight, called “the Mixta,” that will help us, I believe, to understand more fully why and how the Church must always face up alertly and virtuously to the morally contentious—and often protractedly … Continue reading
Author Archives: Dr. Robert Hickson
Divine Providence and Papal Diplomacy: The Case of Pius XII in World War II
Of the Christian Mysteries, the concept and reality of the Permissive Will of God is one of the most challenging doctrines, and a great personal test of the Faith of a Catholic. For, it is believed that God (the Holy … Continue reading
The Daunting Six Days of Winter SEAL Training (1974-1975): The Personal Report of a Graduate, Dr. Robert Adams
A close reading of Dr. Robert Adams’ 2017 book will, if we are honest, challenge all of us to the depths. For sure, it will inform us—and inspire us with its vividness—about many important, but still little known, things concerning … Continue reading
A Miscalculated Demolition: Evelyn Waugh’s 1942 Wartime Letter to His Wife
Some Modern Catholic (or Neo-Modernist) Churchmen have advocated –at least since Pope Pius XII’s 1950 Encyclical, Humani Generis, or soon thereafter — “the demolition of the bastions,” seeming to refer to a timely removing of the barriers between the Catholic … Continue reading
Joseph Ratzinger on the Priesthood and on the Resurrection
In the latter part of 2006, after the April 2005 installation of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, I had occasion to tell a professor friend of mine confidentially that I have always had difficulties reading with understanding the varied … Continue reading
Hilaire Belloc’s Memorable 1911 Depiction of a Sussex Squire: Fuller of Brightling
One year after Hilaire Belloc’s four-year term in the British House of Commons (1906-1910), he published The Four Men: A Farrago (1911), wherein he memorably depicts the robust and eccentric and magnanimously generous Squire Fuller of Brightling, an honored native … Continue reading
Maurice Baring’s 1927 Novel on Russia and Wartime Manchuria: Tinker’s Leave
Ten years after the sacred events at Fatima, Portugal, as well as a full decade after the 1917 Bolshevik revolutionary takeover in Russia, Maurice Baring — who knew the Russian language very well — wrote another book on Russia (and … Continue reading
Two Valorous Officers and Their Integrity and Eccentric Ways: Evelyn Waugh and Randolph Churchill
Having recently read much of Captain Evelyn Waugh’s Diaries and Letters and Essays written during World War II, I knew that I could not briefly summarize their content and their manifold importance. But, as a result, I have come even … Continue reading
Evelyn Waugh’s Comic Muse in Scoop
Two years before he was to die in early April of 1966 on Easter Sunday after Mass, Evelyn Waugh wrote a new Preface to his pre-War 1938 novel, Scoop.1 In that brief 1964 Preface and retrospect, he recalls the atmosphere … Continue reading
The Recent Biography of Dr. Warren Carroll and The Incarnation of Christian Chivalry
This recently published biography of Dr. Warren Carroll is a genuine work of love and fitting veneration. It is written by Laura Gossin, an history major in college and herself a 1987 graduate of Christendom College, the now flourishing institution … Continue reading
Evelyn Waugh’s Welcome to Modern Europe Some Seventy Years Ago
It was some years ago — in the early 1970s during Graduate School in North Carolina — that a learned and charmingly eccentric Classics Professor unexpectedly showed to me a memorable passage from the conclusion of a modern book: Evelyn … Continue reading
Perception Attentive and Tremendous Trifles
In light of the concept and reality of “tremendous trifles” — as resonantly presented (and variously illustrated) by G.K. Chesterton himself — we are now encouraged to add one of Hilaire Belloc’s own evocative essays for our consideration. Belloc’s presentation … Continue reading
Asking Candid Questions About Fundamental Convictions: Josef Pieper
While slowly reading the second of the three volumes of Josef Pieper’s Memoirs, Not Yet the Twilight (Noch Nicht Aller Tage Abend), I came more and more to think of him as a cultivated and disciplined man who so graciously … Continue reading
An Analogy from Hilaire Belloc’s “The Barbarians”
After recently re-reading after some years Hilaire Belloc’s 1912 essay, entitled “The Barbarians,” I have thought to apply a few of his keen insights about both ancient and modern civilisation to the current Catholic Church and her own “cultural immune … Continue reading
Hilaire Belloc: Walking, Inns, and the Recovery of Europe
On this 64th anniversary of the death of Hilaire Belloc (and fitting Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), I thought to select a few passages from our beloved friend’s versatile writings both before and shortly after World War I: … Continue reading