It was designed "to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine".

The encyclopedia records the accomplishments of Catholics and others in nearly all intellectual and professional pursuits, including the arts, education and science.

In addition to frequent informal conferences and constant communication by letters, the editors held 134 formal meetings to consider the plan, scope and progress of the multi-volume reference work This review process may have been accelerated by the reuse of older authorized publications.

The editors received a nihil obstat, a declaration of no objection, from Remy Lafort, an official church censor, on November 1, 1908.

In 1912, a special completely illustrated, commemorative volume was awarded to those patrons who contributed to the start of the enterprise in 1907 by buying multiple encyclopedia sets early on.

The editors have insisted that the articles should contain the latest and most accurate information to be obtained from the standard works on each subject.However, "from standard works" allows that some of the articles from European contributors such as Pierre Batiffol (French) and Johann Peter Kirsch (German) had previously been published in whole or in part in Europe and were translated and edited for the Encyclopedia.

In 1993, Kevin Knight, a 26-year-old resident of Denver, Colorado, decided, during the visit of Pope John Paul II (1920-2005, served 1978-2005), to that city for World Youth Day, to launch a project to republish the 1907-1913 original edition of the '"Catholic Encyclopedia on the Internet.

Volunteers from several countries, including the United States, Canada, France, and Brazil helped in the transcription of the original text material.

[Volumes 1] In 2007, Catholic Answers internet website published a watermarked version derived from page scans.