this we do not mean to lay blame on the Redemptorist superiors.  In all that we have to say on this subject we must be understood as recognizing their purity of intention.  Their motives were love of discipline and obedience, which they considered seriously endangered.  They were persuaded that their action, though severe, was necessary for the good of the entire order.  And this shows that the difficulty was a misunderstanding, for there is conclusive evidence of the loyalty of the American Fathers—­of Father Hecker no less than the others; as also of their fair fame as Redemptorists with both the superiors and brethren of the community up to the date of their disagreement.  When Father Hecker left for Rome the Provincial gave him his written word that, although he disapproved of his journey, he bore witness to him as a good Redemptorist, full of zeal for souls; and he added that up to that time his superiors had been entirely satisfied with him; and to the paper containing this testimony the Provincial placed the official seal of the order.  On the other side, a repeated and careful examination of Father Hecker’s letters and memoranda reveals no accusation by him of moral fault against his Redemptorist superiors, but on the contrary many words of favorable explanation of their conduct.  When the Rector Major, in the midst of his council, began, to Father Hecker’s utter amazement, to read the sentence of expulsion, he fell on his knees and received the blow with bowed head as a visitation of God.  And when, again, after prostrating himself before the Blessed Sacrament and resigning himself to the Divine Will, he returned to the council and begged the General on his knees for a further consideration of his case, and was refused, he reports that the General affirmed that his sense of duty would not allow him to act otherwise than he had done, and that he by no means meant to condemn Father Hecker in the court of conscience, but only to exercise jurisdiction over his external conduct.

In truth the trouble arose mainly from the very great difference between the character of the American Fathers and that of their superiors in the order.  It is nothing new or strange, to borrow Father Hewit’s thoughts as expressed in his memoir of Father Baker, that men whose characters are cast in a different mould should have different views, and should, with the most conscientious intentions, be unable to coincide in judgment or act in concert: 

“There is room in the Catholic Church for every kind of religious organization, suiting all the varieties of mind and character and circumstance.  If collisions and misunderstandings often come between those who have the same great end in view, this is the result of human infirmity, and only shows how imperfect and partial are human wisdom and human virtue.”