U.S. bishops vote to advance canonization cause of American priest Isaac Hecker
The U.S. bishops voted Tuesday to advance the cause of beatification and canonization of Servant of God Isaac Thomas Hecker, a 19th-century American priest who founded the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, today known as the Paulist Fathers.
Hecker’s cause for canonization was formally opened in 2008, at which time he received the title “Servant of God.”
Paulist Father Ron Franco, who is the postulator of Hecker’s cause, told CNA Tuesday that the next step in the process is to publicize the cause for canonization in the Archdiocese of New York, where the Paulists are headquartered.
Franco said that “the long-term task of the study of Isaac Hecker’s writings by a historical commission has already begun.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York raised the question of furthering the cause of canonization at the local level to his brother bishops at the U.S. bishops’ annual fall assembly in Baltimore on Tuesday.
After a vote, 230 bishops voted yes, seven voted no, and two abstained.
Hecker’s life was a “classic American story,” Dolan said, adding that Hecker, the son of German immigrants, “didn’t have it easy.”
Dolan said that Hecker set out to “win the world for Christ” and “worked tirelessly to proclaim the word of God.”
“His faith ought to inspire us,” he said. “I ask for your endorsement that the Church may soon raise to the altar Father Isaac Thomas Hecker.”
