One hundred years ago, an Irish civil servant founded an organisation of lay Catholics that prefigured many of the themes of the Francis pontificate
When the Legion of Mary celebrated its golden jubilee in 1971, the Irish bishops were unqualified in their appreciation of its founder, Frank Duff. Its origins, they wrote, “are marked by obscurity, and even hostility, that are seen at the outset of Our Divine Saviour’s life in Bethlehem and Nazareth. Yet in the plan of God, the supernatural faith and courage of the founding members have merited grace not only of survival, through every kind of human vicissitude, but also a diffusion throughout the countries of the world.”
The bishops’ letter was solace to Duff. As is hinted by their acknowledgement of “hostility”, the Legion grew into a global pioneer of the lay apostolate even as relations between Duff and the Dublin Archdiocese were at times fraught with difficulty. But through it all Duff remained, as Archbishop John Charles McQuaid acknowledged in a letter written in 1963 to the nuncio to Ireland, Giuseppe Sensi, “utterly loyal”.
