Fr. Gregory Hesse, S.T.D., J.C.D., S.T.L., J.C.L., Canon Lawyer, Doctor of Thomistic Theology, lifelong friend and personal secretary of Cardinal Stickler at the Vatican from 1986-1988 has provided us with many talks and conferences where he gives a no-nonsense, intelligent, learned, and witty exposition and explanation of relevant topics facing contemporary faithful Catholics. Fr. Hesse got to know approximately 45 cardinals while studying and working in Rome for 15 years and he has an uncanny and substantial knowledge of many things. You would be hard-pressed to find another theologian quite like him.
Canon Hesse was related to the Hapsburg royal bloodline. He was born in Vienna in 1952, ordained by Cardinal Marella in St. Peter's Basilica on November 21, 1981, and earned doctorates in Canon Law and Theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicuм) in Rome. He worked as a personal secretary of Cardinal Stickler at the Vatican from 1986 to 1988. He passed away on January 25, 2006. A breath of fresh air in today’s widespread climate of many weak, ignorant, and naive clerics and theologians, he was affectionately called by several of his friends during his life “the bull in the china shop.” His example, testimony, and insights no doubt played and will play an important role in Catholic thought and development.
For those of you who are new to Tradition, talks given by Fr Hess can be found at:
https://spideroak.com/browse/share/Hesse/MP3-Remastered/Fr.%20Gregory%20Hesse%20Audio%20Files%20%28Remastered%29/Father also had a great sense of humour and often quoted the two poems below:
Heretics All by Hilaire Belloc
Heretics all, whoever you may be,
In Tarbes or Nimes, or over the sea,
You never shall have good words from me.
Caritas non conturbat me.
But Catholic men that live upon wine
Are deep in the water, and frank, and fine;
Wherever I travel I find it so,
Benedicamus Domino.
On childing women that are forelorn,
And men that sweat in nothing but scorn:
That is on all that ever were born,
Miserere Domine.
To my poor self on my deathbed,
And all my dear companions dead,
Because of the love that I bore them,
Dona Eis Requiem.
Hilaire Belloc
The Song of Right and Wrong by G.K. Chesterton
Feast on wine or fast on water
And your honour shall stand sure,
God Almighty’s son and daughter
He the valiant, she the pure;
If an angel out of heaven
Brings you other things to drink,
Thank him for his kind attentions,
Go and pour them down the sink.
Tea is like the East he grows in,
A great yellow Mandarin
With urbanity of manner
And unconsciousness of sin;
All the women, like a harem,
At his pig-tail troop along;
And, like all the East he grows in,
He is Poison when he’s strong.
Tea, although an Oriental,
Is a gentleman at least;
Cocoa is a cad and coward,
Cocoa is a vulgar beast,
Cocoa is a dull, disloyal,
Lying, crawling cad and clown,
And may very well be grateful
To the fool that takes him down.
As for all the windy waters,
They were rained like tempests down
When good drink had been dishonoured
By the tipplers of the town;
When red wine had brought red ruin
And the death-dance of our times,
Heaven sent us Soda Water
As a torment for our crimes.
Topic: Father Gregory Hesse, RIP (Read 5389 times)