In the same letter, that of December 25, he hopes that if the Holy See separates them from old affiliations they will form a society “which would embody in its life what is good in the American people in the natural order and adapt itself to answer the great wants of our people in the spiritual order.  I must confess to you frankly that thoughts of this kind do occupy my mind, and day by day they appear to me to come more clearly from heaven.  I cannot refuse to entertain them without resisting what appear to me the inspirations of God.  You know that these are not new opinions hastily adopted.  From the beginning of my Catholic life there seemed always before me, but not distinctly, some such work, and it is indicated both in Questions of the Soul and Aspirations of Nature. And I cannot resist the thought that my present peculiar position is or may be providential to further some such undertaking. . . .  It might be imagined that these views were but a ruse of the devil to thwart our common cause and future prospects.  To this I have only to answer that the old rascal has been a long time at work to reach this point.  If it be he, I shall head him off because all that regards my personal vocation I shall submit to wise and holy men and obey what they tell me.”

Father Hecker had his first audience with Pius IX., after much delay, on December 22.  “I felt,” he said, in giving an account of it in after years, “that my trouble in Rome was the great crisis in my life.  I had one way of telling that I was not like Martin Luther:  in my inmost soul I was ready entirely ready, to submit to the judgment of the Church.  They had made me out a rebel and a radical to the Holy Father, and when I saw him alone, after the usual salutations, and while on my knees, I said:  ’Look at me, Holy Father; see, my shoulders are broad.  Lay on the stripes.  I will bear them.  All I want is justice.  I want you to judge my case.  I will submit.’  The Pope’s eyes flled with tears at these words, and his manner was very kind.”  The rest of the interview is given in a letter:  “The Pope bade me rise and told me he was informed all about my affairs.  Then he asked what was my desire.  I replied that he might have the goodness to examine the purpose of my coming to Rome, ’since it regarded the conversion of the American people, a work which the most intelligent and pious Catholics have at heart, among others Dr. Ives, whom you know.’  ‘Yes,’ he said; ‘has his wife become a Catholic?’ I replied in the affirmative.  ‘But what can I do?’ he said; ’the affair is being examined by Archbishop Bizarri (Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars), and nothing can be done until he gives in his report; then I will give my opinion and my decision.’  ’Your decision, most Holy Father, is God’s decision, and whatever it may be willingly and humbly will I submit to it.’  While I was making this remark his Holiness paid the greatest attention, and it seemed to satisfy and please him.  ‘The