He had him call at the newly-opened diocesan seminary at Fordham and become acquainted with the professors.

Bishop Hughes, whom he also consulted, urged him to go to St.Sulpice in Paris, and to the Propaganda in Rome, and make his studies for the secular priesthood.
But they failed to win him to their opinion, and were too enlightened to seek to influence him except by argument.

Father Hecker ever held the very highest views on the dignity of the priesthood, considering its vocation second to none.

But while he was irresistibly inclined to a state of retirement quite incompatible with the duties of the secular priesthood in America, he also felt the most urgent need of constant advice and companionship for guidance in his interior life.
These seemingly contradictory requirements he hoped to find united in a religious community, and Bishop McCloskey emphatically assured him that his anticipations would not be disappointed.

In addition to this, Isaac Hecker had at least some premonitions of an apostolic vocation calling for a wider range of activity than can be usually compassed by the diocesan clergy.