Extension magazine - Spring 2024

8
BUILD
Roots
Extension | Spring 2024 9
T
Key word
brings us back
to our roots
he word “Society” has
been officially re-added
and re-introduced into the
Catholic Extension title and
logo after a brief hiatus.
“Society” has always been part
of our legal name, but it was
dropped from our logo for the
purpose of brevity.
Now “Society” is back in.
The noun “Society” automatically
turns “Catholic” and
“Extension” into adjectives.
Every noun is lonesome for
adjectives.
Adjectives are servants.
They dress up nouns, lending
them qualities, distinction
and focus. A world in which
nouns go without their adjectives
would be a poorer and
duller world.
So what kind of “society”
are we talking about? The
answer is that we are a
society that extends. And we
Father Francis C. Kelley, founder of
Catholic Extension Society, in 1916
are a society that extends in
uniquely Catholic ways.
Thus, we are “Catholic
Extension Society.”
Titles matter, and so do the
adjectives that serve them.
WHY THEN, A “SOCIETY”?
A “society” is a voluntary
association of individuals with
common beliefs or interests
that bind us together and move
us toward action. A society is
different from a club. There
are no stringent membership
requirements that distinguish
who is in from who is out.
We are a society made so
by our common beliefs and
our common purpose so
that together we can achieve
something.
What kind of society are
we? We are not just any
society. We are a society that
believes in “extension.”
When we extend ourselves
to see suffering, we are
moved to action. Matthew 25
We
again
describes Jesus’ foundational
belief in the concept of extension,
namely, “Whatever you
do for the least of my people,
you do for me.” Connectivity
activates our empathy.
A society of “extension”
believes we must go to the
peripheries, to put those most
counted out in the center
of our consciousness. By
extending ourselves to the
poor, the marginalized and the
suffering, we are transformed.
We can easily develop
“spiritual cataracts” when we
cease to extend. We become
detached and indifferent,
unable to repair and reverse
injury, doubt, despair and
darkness.
“Extension” is the only
are a
‘Society’
antidote to this spiritual
paralysis and is an indispensable
adjective in our name.
The Extension Society ensures
that we can readily access
this antidote to indifference,
through our connection to
the poor, marginalized and
forgotten of our country.
The last indispensable
adjective in our title is that we
are “Catholic.”
To be Catholic is to be in
communion with others. To
be Catholic is to find the face
of Christ in the poor. And to
be Catholic means that we are
called to “love and serve the
Lord” as a sign of hope for the
world.
Catholic Extension Society
has continually given us
a larger sense of ecclesial
communion that extends
beyond the narrow geographical
confines of any particular
area. A Catholic Extension
Society also brings us to an
encounter with Christ through
our connection to the poor. As
Catholics, we are concerned
with the well-being of others
not because of who they are,
but because of who we are,
namely people of faith.
The adjectives and noun
that form our name matter.
They make us the Catholic
Extension Society.
HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY
Catholic Extension Society
was born out of the genius
of Father Francis Clement
Kelley, a young pastor serving
a poor, rural parish in Lapeer,
Michigan, in the early 1900s.
While traveling out West,
he found many areas of
Many years, same mission
Catholic Extension Society has
updated our logo several times since
our founding in 1905.
1920
1970
1980
2000
2010
2015
2024