Missionaries of Saint Paul the Apostle (Paulists)

MISSIONARI DI SAN PAOLO APOSTOLO (PAULISTI). - È la prima società missionaria ame-

ricana, and it was founded in Rome and New York in 1858 by Fr. Isaac Thomas Hecker, together with Frs. Augustine F. Hewit, George Deshon, Francis A. Baker, and Clarence A. Walworth. All of these, members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, due to controversies over the appropriateness of certain missionary methods, and wishing to dedicate themselves in a particular way to the conversion of non-Catholics in America, were dispensed from their vows in order to be able to attend to the formation of the new community.

The spiritual characteristic of the religious life of the Paulists is the practice of numerous exercises, both privately and in common, which the first fathers already observed while they were Redemptorists; and although they do not take religious vows, they follow the evangelical teaching as if the canonical bond prescribed it for them.

Their activity is primarily the conversion of non-Catholics, and embraces every branch of the Catholic apostolate: conferences, preaching, the press. Therefore, they were the first to give life to the Catholic press in America (in the last three years as many as 15 million pamphlets have been distributed); in 1865 they published the first Catholic monthly periodical; in 1894 they introduced the use of mechanized means, with a trailer equipped as a chapel and lodging for two missionaries and provided with loudspeakers; in the most populated sections, they have opened information centers with reading and conference rooms, exerting themselves in every center in teaching special classes and non-Catholic private individuals; and at the desire of several bishops they have undertaken to direct, in many universities of large States, the "Newman Clubs" (organizations that integrate the spiritual and social life of the Catholic student under the guidance of the Paulist chaplain who is their spiritual director, protect the rights of Catholic students, and are recognized as a representative of Catholicism within the university). In the various Paulist parishes, the work is characterized by the particular ministry of preaching, the education of children, the relief of the poor, and the decorum and dignity of the sacred liturgy. In 1926 the ancient church of S. Susanna in Rome was assigned to the Paulists for American Catholics visiting or residing in the Eternal City. On July 13, 1929, Pius XI issued the decree of praise of the Society, and on Dec. 17, 1940, Pius XII definitively approved it along with the Constitutions. At present the M. di S. P. A. have 182 priests, 90 students, and 21 novices.

Edoardo Peters