Frank Duff: a Life Story, by Finola Kennedy, Continuum, £14.99

Finola Kennedy, a lecturer at University College, Dublin, has made excellent use of a mass of archive material in this new biography of the founder of the Legion of Mary. Most founders of lay movements in the Church, let alone one as well-known as the Legion, with its 4 million members worldwide, and 10 million auxiliaries, are described as “charismatic.” Frank Duff would have heartily disliked such a description of himself. A civil servant for over 20 years before he resigned his job in order to devote himself full time to the Legion, he deliberately kept a low profile; this was partly temperamental, partly supernatural humility and partly because he believed that Our Lady was the real founder of this dynamic lay apostolate which began humbly enough in Dublin in 1921.

Kennedy provides a full and rounded portrait of Duff, described at his funeral in 1980 as “a man of personal charm, self-effacing modesty, absolute integrity and unshakeable courage.” He certainly needed the courage: when the Legion began, inspiring ordinary lay Catholics to play an active part in the Mystical Body, the dominant clerical caste in Ireland was suspicious if not actually jealous of the movement, believing it would undermine their own role. For Duff, the Legion simply “aspires to be the handmaid of the priest.” His understanding of the role of the lay apostolate echoed the writings of Newman, with which he was familiar, and anticipated the teaching of the Second Vatican Council by several decades.

His biographer describes the scene on 14 September 1965, at the opening of the fourth and final session of the Council, when the 2500 assembled bishops gave a standing ovation to the unassuming man present as an auditor: “It was an unforgettable moment: the thanks of the universal Church to the pioneer of the lay apostolate.”

Kennedy describes the compassion and originality of Duff’s charitable outreach, reflected in the Legion’s early activities: opening a hostel for unmarried mothers so that, contrary to the punitive outlook of the time, they could look after their babies and bond with them; opening another hostel as a refuge for prostitutes, to lead them away from their trade; arranging a social venue for members of the homosexual community at a time of prejudice and hostility towards them. Duff also spoke out strongly against the infamous industrial schools, into which poor and illegitimate children were, he said, “shovelled” by the Church and social work authorities.

When the legion spread overseas, Duff would have no truck with South African apartheid; the Legion was to be inclusive and inter-racial; he declared, “The Legion started and grew up free of racial barriers.” He also rejected the Judaeo-Masonic conspiracy theories made popular through the writing of his contemporary, Fr Denis Fahey; legionaries were to aim for dialogue with Jews. When certain legionaries, influenced by Fahey, displayed anti-Semitic behaviour they were asked to leave the Legion.

As Finola Kennedy points out, Duff made great sacrifices in his early life. A very able student, he had hoped to go on to university after attending Belvedere and Blackrock Colleges; this ambition was frustrated when his father died and he, as the eldest of a large family, had to become the breadwinner. Thus he entered the Irish civil service straight from school. “I had no thought of marriage”, he later commented. Some have inferred from this that there must have some hinterland of sexual repression in his life. This is not true. What began as a sacrifice became a vocation to lay celibacy as Duff recognised the significance of what he was called to do; in effect, the Legion became his spiritual family. Outside this apostolate, his pleasure was cycling. The day he died, aged 91, peacefully in his armchair at home, his bicycle was found in the hallway, ready for an expedition with friends the following day. Once, aged 60, he had cycled from Cork to Dublin in a single day.

The author writes that she was asked to undertake the biography by the Postulator of Duff’s Cause, Fr Bede McGregor OP. Her book has been written to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Legion. It tells the story of a man inspired by the writings of St Louis de Montfort to realise the role of Our Lady in salvation history and the profoundly important part that lay people can play under her banner.

© 2011 Francis Phillips

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