The Indianapolis journal., 1899-02-26
FATHER HECkER AND THE PORES
LETTER.

1t is not every man who, ten years after
his death, becomes the subject of heated
controversy. affecting the Catholic Church
in two continents and of discussion in the
Vatican elciting papal encyclical. This is
what has happened to Rev Isaac Thomas
Hecker. who on his deathbed, probably had
as little thought of raising commotion ten
years later any other man who passes
| out of the world quietly The Pope in his
recent letter to Cardinal Gibbons. says:
II is known to you. beloved son. that the
Life OF Isaac Thomas Hecker. especially as
Interpreted and translated in a foreign Ian
| guage, has excited not little controversy,
because therein has been voiced certain
opinions concerning the way of leading
Christian life. We, therefore, on account of
cur apostolic office, having to guard the in
tegrity of the faith and the security of the
faithful, are desirous of writing to you more
at length concerning this whole matter
Father Hecker had a varied career and
one that showed he possessed strong char
acter. He was born in New York city in
1919. Having received but a meager educa-
ton and compelled to support himself from
an early age, he engaged in the flour busi-
ness. Being a reader of thoughtful books
he was led to the study of metaphysics and
theology, and finally withdrew from busi-
ness and Joined the Brook Farm Commu-
nifty. Like most of the other reformers,
cranks and Missionaries who engaged in that
experiment he soon tired of it, and, at the
age of twenty-one years, resumed mercan-
tile pursuits. Up to his twenty-second
year he was Protestant in belief and
association, but the next year be be-
came convert to Catholicism and again
quit business and went to Germany to
study for the priesthood. He was or
dained in 1S49, passed two years at a
retreat of the Redemptorst Fathers in
Belgium, did missionary work in England
and returned to the United States in 1851.
After few years of mission work he con-
ceived the idea Of forming a new Catholic
society which should be wholly American
and composed of converts from Protestant
ism. His idea evidently was to create an
order which should be distinctly American
and free from some of the traditional ideas
of the religious societies of the Old World.
In 1857 he went to Rome and laid his plans
before the Pope, who approved them and
appointed Father Hecker superior of the
Paulist Fathers. Returning to New York
he organized a society there collected funds
and erected church, home and cluster of
schools. The rest of his life was devoted to
editorial work on the Catholic World, which
he founded, and to authorship. Among
his works are Aspirations of Nature"
"Catholicity in the United States" "Catho-
lies and Protestants Agreeing on the School
nt1a@
his life it may be inferred that he was a
man of original and independent mind, and
although not learned man in the sense
that many Catholic prelates are, he had
sufficient learning to expound his views ef-
fectively. Born an American, converted to
Catholicism after he reached manhood. and
having spent several years in Europe part
of the time in a retreat of the Dominican
order, it was natural that he should con-
ceive the idea of Americanizing Catholi-
cism. His object was to modernize church
methods without departing from church
doctrines. His personal work Injured to the
advantage of the church, and it is not
likely that any censure or reflection would
ever have been cast upon his methods by
alton of his ideas in a Life of Father
Hecker'' by one of bis followers and CO.
workers. Father Elliot. The book probably
goes further in encouraging advanced ideas
and departure from the traditional meth
DDS of the Catholic Church than Father
Hecker did would have done had he
written his own biography At all events,
the book started a controversy the echoes
of which reached the Vatican, ds did the
book itself, and called out the recent en-
cyclical. The evident intent of the letter.
which is very diplomatic in tone and phrase,
was to assert the authority of the church
and, without in any way censuring the
doctrines or the work of the Paulist Fathers.
to draw the line beyond which they must
not go in their efforts to modernize or
Americanize church methods and doctrines.
THE Life of Father Hecker'' seems
to have caused even more discussion in
France than it did in this country, and the
Popes letter may have been intended as
much for that country as for this. 1t has
no special interest outside of the church,
though for Catholic prelates all over the
world it is notice that Rome is still the
fountain head of authority, and that under
no consideration or pretext whatever are
they to yield or abate anything of the au-
thority, doctrines or usages of the church.
That the letter does not contain anything
Objectionable from an American point of
view, but is purely ecclesiastical and re-
ligious in its scope, may be inferred from
the fact that it has the hearty approval of
Archbishop Ireland than whom no more
loyal and enthusiastic American lives.
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