St. Anthony Messenger: Stacking Stones on the Margins

“I saw this series is called ‘Rebuild My Church,’” says Catholic Extension Society chief mission officer Joe Boland as he settles in for his interview with St. Anthony Messenger. The series title hearkens St. Francis of Assisi’s call from God: “Rebuild my church, for as you can see it is fallen into ruin.” As goes the famous story, Francis immediately began rebuilding the small wayside San Damiano chapel, not realizing his divine call meant more than stacking stones. Boland laughs, “Well, like Francis, we have always taken that call very literally."

Since its founding in 1905, Catholic Extension has helped rebuild or repair more than 13,000 churches. “That’s almost as many [as] Starbucks stores in the United States,” Boland laughs, “but only if you don’t count the Starbucks shops in airports and Target stores.” 

Today, the Catholic Extension Society (CES) continues to “stack stones” as Boland spearheads an ambitious project to repair and rebuild more than 600 churches and schools in Puerto Rico. It is believed to be the largest rebuilding and recovery project in the history of American Christianity. 

Read the remainder of this feature in the April 2025 issue of the St. Anthony Messenger HERE. This is the fifth article in a series that shares stories of ministries or organizations that are doing healing work in the world.