The Paulist Difference

The founder of the Paulists, Isaac Hecker, was a spiritual seeker, a wandering soul. He lived for a time in Transcendentalist utopian communities where he consulted the leading thinkers of his day. Though a seeker, he became a man of conviction: once he found the truth in the Catholic Church, he gave his whole life to it. His only desire was to proclaim the truth to others so that they too could find that deep peace and "unreachable quietness" his restless soul had found in Christ.

Hecker responded creatively to the particular challenges and difficulties of preaching the Gospel in the United States. Taking the message to the people rather than waiting for them to come to him, he used the printing press and proclaimed the Gospel in public. He employed mass communications to put Catholic ideas into the cultural marketplace.

The Paulist difference is to meet the contemporary culture on its own terms, to present the Gospel message in ways that are compelling but not diluted, so that the fullness of the Catholic faith may lead others to find Christ's deep peace and "unreachable quietness."

Paulists do not condemn culture, nor do they try to conform the Gospel to it. Rather, they preach the Gospel in new ways and in new forms, so that the deep spiritual longings of the culture might find fulfillment in Jesus Christ. To this end, Paulists use printing presses, movie cameras, and web servers to communicate the words of Christ—the Word Himself—to a new generation of Americans.