CATHOLIC CHURCH EXTENSION SOCIETY. – Its purpose is to promote missions and missionary schools in the United States of America and the territories dependent upon them.
The society was established in Chicago in 1905 and, on 7 June 1907, was approved by Pius X in a letter to Msgr. J. E. Quigley, archbishop of Chicago. By the brief of 9 June 1910, it received the title of Pontifical.
It is directed by a “Board of Governors,” composed of all the resident archbishops of the United States, 12 bishops, 12 priests, and 12 laymen. In addition to the general aims indicated above, the Society helps to build chapels and churches, supports priests and seminaries with scholarships, and publishes a monthly periodical, “Extension Magazine.”
BIBL.: W. D. O'Brien, The C. C. E. S., in The Apostolate Mission, Nuova York 1942, pp. 125–32. Saverio Paventi