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Welcome to a “new” 110-year-old member

    Welcome new ACP Member Extension magazine. This venerable magazine has prevailed for 110 years. The early years were an uphill struggle.

    Father Francis Clement Kelley organized Catholic Extension to bring Church to Catholics in frontier America
    FATHER FRANCIS CLEMENT KELLEY ORGANIZED CATHOLIC EXTENSION TO BRING CHURCH TO CATHOLICS IN FRONTIER AMERICA.

    His treasurer warned him that such things “produce nothing but trouble,” and other board members predicted disaster. Yet Father Francis Clement Kelley believed so strongly in his vision of a new Catholic magazine that he gave his own personal guarantees to the printer for 50,000 copies of the premier issue of Extension magazine in 1906.

    It was just six months after Father Kelley had convinced a board of 18 clergy and lay members to form the Catholic Church Extension Society. The organization’s young president believed his magazine would carry his appeals for America’s rural missions out to Catholic homes better than any other means. He also admitted later to a case of “journalitis,” having spent time as a youth around his hometown’s newspaper office and even having started a college paper.

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