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Financial Support for tlee Churcle in Texas
May, 1907, it began to appear monthly. It continues to be the outstanding Catholic magazine as evidenced by its present circulation of almost six million. This publication has been considered the very "soul of the Society," ever since its establishment. For almost fifty years it has been !-.ringing into the homes of American Catholics the cause of home mis- sions, and developing a consciousness of the heretofore neglected mission field of Catholic action. The aroused sense of responsibility may be judged by the moneys collected to aid home missions. During the first year the modest sum of only $1,934 was collected; by 1910, the collections reached the total of $176,395.20, and by 1920 they totalled more than $500,000, reaching the million dollar mark by 1926. Reminiscent of the Gospel story of the widow's mite is the account of the first contribution to the Society. Father Kelley was talking to a newsboy in the Michigan Central station in Port Huron, while waiting for a train home from the organizational meeting. "I see your picture is in the paper, Father, and how you have to raise a million dollars." Father Kelley explained his plans and dreams and how he did not know where he would ever find the money. The unknown paperboy, selling the lmernal, poor as the widow, cheerfully told Father Kelley, the founder of the Society which today counts its funds in the millions, "Here's a mite on that million you have to collect," and slipped into his hand a rumpled Canadian dollar bill. 30 Proudly the president of the Society referred to this first contribution, the newspaper boy's "mite," which, framed, hung on the wall by his desk in Chicago. Some doubt the story, but the late Bishop Francis C. Kelley averred to his last day, that it was true nevertheless. 31 The Child Apostles. In his Story of Extension, Bishop Kelley re- called how during that first year, while still at Lapeer, Michigan, he had received a humble donation from a Chicago admirer who signed himself W. D. O'Brien. When the Society moved its headquarters to the great metropolis in 1907, one of the first to welcome the officers was the Reverend W. D. O'Brien. The rapid development of the work of the Society soon made additional help imperative. Bishop Muldoon, then Auxiliary of Chicago, suggested Father O'Brien as the man needed. Ever since then, O'Brien, himself now Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, has been 30Francls C. Kelley, The Story of Extension, p. 47. 31 Extension Magazi,~, Silver Jubilee Number, p. I I, give:1 the fi.~·ure~ of the growth of income ~tarted by the Canadian dollar contribution.
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