He was there equipped with the necessary external guarantee of his inner consciousness that man is good, because made so by his Creator--inclined indeed to evil, but yet a good being, even so inclined.

Nothing is more necessary for one who is to be a teacher among a population whose Catholicity is of blood and family tradition as well as of grace, than to know that there is virtue, true and high in its own order, outside the visible pale of the Church.

Especially is this necessary if Catholics in any age or country are to be fitted for a missionary vocation.

That this is the vocation of the Church of his day was Isaac Hecker's passionate conviction.

He was able to communicate this to Catholics of the old stock as well as to influence non-Catholics in favor of the Church; perhaps even more so.