Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York presides at the Mass that officially opened the cause for canonization of Paulist Founder Father Isaac T. Hecker. The Mass took place at the Paulist mother church, the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, on Jan. 27, 2008.

Editor’s Note: March 6 is a significant anniversary for the Paulist Fathers as they celebrate the handing down of Nuper Nonnulli, the Vatican document that allowed the five Paulist founders to leave the Redemptorists in order to create something new.

Father Isaac Hecker, CSP

In 1857, the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome welcomed a weary and shaken visitor. As he knelt in prayer in the Borghese Chapel that still houses the icon of Salus Populi Romani – the sunlight beaming through the chapel dome – Father Isaac Hecker prayed and tried to figure out what to do.

Father Hecker was a 37-year-old American-born priest who had just been dismissed from the Redemptorist Fathers.

“Hecker and four other American-born Redemptorists – Augustine Hewit, George Deshon, Francis Baker, and Clarence Walworth – decided to appeal to the Redemptorist Superior in Rome for an English-speaking house primarily focused on missionary work (an idea which had originated with the previous provincial, but which his successor had reservations about),” said Father Ronald Franco, CSP, in an article published in the May/June 2008 edition of The Catholic World. “His expenses paid by his brother, George, and armed with supportive letters from leading American Bishops, Hecker traveled to Rome in 1857. The Redemptorist General Council, however, decided that Hecker’s unauthorized trip was grounds for dismissal”

Father Hecker immediately went the few blocks down from the Redemptorist Provincial House to St. Mary Major to seek the Blessed Virgin’s guidance on what new direction he should take in life. It was all so sudden and shocking in its unexpectedness.

Just a few days after his dismissal, Father Hecker wrote: “This morning I said Mass in St. Peter’s. Our affairs are in the hands of God. I hope no one will feel discouraged, nor fear for me. All that is needed to bring the interests of God to a successful issue is grace, grace, grace, and this is obtained by prayer, and if the American Fathers will only pray, and get others to pray, and not let anyone have the slightest reason to bring a word against them in our present crisis, God will be with us, and Our Lady will take good care of us.

“So far, no step that has been taken on our part need be regretted,” he continued. “If it were to be done over again it would have my consent; the blow given to me I have endeavored to receive with humility in view of God; it has not produced any trouble in my soul, nor made me waver in the slightest degree in my confidence in God or in my duty towards Him. Let us not be impatient; God is with us, and will lead us if we confide in him.”

Paulist founders: With Hecker, Fathers Hewit, Deshon, Walworth, and Baker (pictured clockwise from left) left the Redemptorists to start the Paulist Fathers

Patience would prove fruitful for Father Hecker, because in less than a year, he and his four companions would make history by forming the Paulist Fathers, the first congregation of Catholic priests founded in the United States.

Father Hecker had stayed in Rome and consulted on his situation and missionary vision of Cardinal Alessandro Barnabo, prefect of the Propagation of the Faith at the time.

Decreed on March 6, 1858 was Nuper Nonnulli, the papal decree granting permission for Fathers Hewit, Deshon, Baker and Walworth to leave the Redemptorists.

“The document ended the relationship of these priests with the Redemptorists in order to form something completely new, which became the Paulist Fathers,” said Father Paul Robichaud, Paulist historian.

Fathers Hewit, Deshon, Walworth and Baker had requested their departure from the Redemptorists in solidarity with Father Hecker, with whom they shared a common vision of evangelizing the United States. The document also joined Father Hecker in the dispensation.

Cardinal Barnabo was concerned it would be hard to convince the Vatican that Father Hecker’s mission should be endorsed while he bore the stigma of dismissal.

“With Nuper Nonnulli, Hecker was no longer dismissed; he was allowed to leave the Redemptorists,” Father Robichaud said.

The five former Redemptorists would met at George Hecker’s house and officially form the Paulist Fathers on July 7, 1858.

“Nuper Nonnulli was part of the origins of the Paulist Fathers,” said Father Robichaud. “It was permission to start something new.”