Page 14 - Catholic Extension Magazine Spring 2020

14 BUILD

Roots

Catholic Extension
reaches a milestone
by staying true

to its mission

or 115 years, Catholic
Extension has been
capturing the hearts
and minds of Catho-
lics throughout Amer-
Fica by build-
ing up transformative faith
communities in the fur- St. Bernard rectory in Ellsworth, Kansas, was the ramshackle building that
thest reaches of our Church. motivated Father Kelley to write “Little Shanty Story” about the desperate straits of
With the generous support of Catholics in rural America that inspired the founding of Catholic Extension.
loyal donors, Catholic Extension
brings the presence of the Church
to thousands of Catholics in mar- 115 years of building up
ginalized areas and helps them
overcome their hardships and forge the Church in America
a better life.
Remarkably, the mission of
Catholic Extension is as relevant he kept his own parish afloat, he his story and started sending dona-
now as when it first came to be made a discovery about the larger tions to help. In 1905, assisted by
more than a century ago—when Church in the United States. In Archbishop James Quigley in Chi-
America’s society and landscape traveling out West, he found many cago, Father Kelley set up Catho-
were quite different than they are Catholics who had no parish. They lic Church Extension Society (now
today. lived hours away from the closest Catholic Extension). Its objec-
From the beginning, frontier churches and struggled to practice tive was to bring the presence of
faith communities have been very their faith. In these isolated areas, the Church to these poorest areas
exciting places, filled with poten- Catholics needed help. where Catholics had so little access
tial. They are communities of Father Kelley set his sights on to the sacraments and so much
growth, possibility and transforma- awakening the missionary spirit potential to grow in their faith.
tion. They are hot spots of creativ- across the U.S. He knew that
ity and with our help, resourceful- building up faith communities in A missionary role
ness. Together we are leading our the peripheries would strengthen As the first step, Father Kelley
Church and our entire country in the Church in America and change created a trio of mobile chapels—
new directions. the fabric of this country. train cars fashioned into chapels,
Father Kelley articulated his complete with altars, pews and
Seeing the need vision in a stirring essay called confessionals. They traveled west-
Catholic Extension was born “Little Shanty Story” about the ward with a priest aboard, stopping
out of the genius of Father Fran- ramshackle rectory of a priest in in town after town, offering Mass,
cis Clement Kelley, a young pas- Ellsworth, Kansas, and the deplor- baptisms, weddings and funer-
tor serving a poor parish in Lap- able conditions he faced. Catho- als. It was Catholic Extension’s first
eer, Michigan in the early 1900s. As lics near and far were moved by experience of bringing the Church