While I was attending Christendom (1997-2001), several guest speakers who came to the college were fond of saying that "we stand on the shoulders of giants."
Well, one of those giants is Dr. Warren H. Carroll.
During my time, few among the student body knew the man personally, and those that did may recall, not only his favorite sayings, but that he was a man one does not approach lightly. While he was generally very kind, he did not wish to be bothered with trifles. He set a tone, and unless you were of the bumbling stripe, you adhered to it.
Since his passing, much praise has been heaped on this man, and rightly so. Before Ex Corde Ecclesiae was ever issued, Dr. Carroll saw the desperate need to for renewal in authentic Catholic higher education, for a curriculum that would shape warriors to storm our apostate world with the sword of truth.
In addition to establishing a college that could rightfully be termed the "Westpoint of the Catholic Higher Education," Dr. Carroll researched and wrote profound historical narratives that today remain unmatched. With Robert Leckie's style of presentation and Daniel-Rops historical vision, Dr. Carroll did not hesitate to lay seige to modernity's false white towers as he pressed his historical narrative.
He remained fully engaged, ever focused and never wavering, until he could no more. For him there was no "debate." There is only the Truth, with a capital T, and that Truth is a divine person named Jesus, who will set you free.
Like many others, I was priveleged to have been a pupil of his. I traveled oversees to Spain with him and because of him to see and study the great monuments of Catholic history: the shrine at Fatima, Queen Isabels' birthplace at Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Philip II's unrivaled monastery-basilica-palace, El Escorial, the Valle de la Cruz, and the Alcazar of Toledo, among others.
Nothing inspired Dr. Carroll so much as the purity of purpose, faith, and heart of his personal heroes, those who rode the tide of history and turned it with their indefatigueable will. And now, thanks to him, in our lives, it is not likely that anyone will inspire us quite like Dr. Carroll, whose total impact, while felt, yet remains unquantifiable.
It may sound presumptuous to say that this man is in Heaven, but I daresay he is. What he built irrevocably changed my life for the good and did the same for thousands of others. Saints impact thousands, helping them to work out their salvation. This leads me to conclude, only by saying thus:
Dr. Carroll, pray for us!
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