Hecker, Isaac (Thomas) (1819–1888)

US religious leader. He conducted missions and won approval for his own congregation (1858), the Missionary Priests of St Paul the Apostle– widely known as the Paulists – devoted to communications and evangelizing among non-Catholics. He started a publishing house and founded Catholic World magazine (1865), which he edited. In such works as The Church and the Age (1887) he advanced a relatively liberal vision of the church.

Hecker was born in New York City. After briefly joining the Brook Farm community, he became a Catholic (1844), studied abroad, and was ordained a Redemptorist priest (1849). A biography of Hecker published in France after his death led to controversy and eventual papal condemnation of ‘Americanism’, though the ideas proscribed were not specifically attributed to Hecker.