Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Frank Duff

My Protestant Irish friend Gareth Russell has an intriguing article about the founder of the Legion of Mary.
Duff founded the society in 1921, with its primary aim being to encourage devotion to the Virgin Mary and to provide practical charitable solutions to the problems of Ireland's many disadvantaged. Based heavily on the teachings of Saint Louis de Montfort, under Duff's leadership the Legion of Mary founded many organisations and establishments which were far, far ahead of their time in early and mid-century Ireland. He strongly opposed the industrial schools for abandoned children from lower-class backgrounds, a position which seems almost prescient when the catalogue of physical abuse inflicted upon Irish children in the industrial schools came to light towards the end of the twentieth century. In contrast to other sections of Catholicism in Ireland at the time, who favoured approaches like the infamous Magdalene laundries to "solve" the problem of mothers giving birth outside of wedlock, Duff and the Legion of Mary established the Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven) Hostel in 1930 for unwed mothers to raise their children in a safe and welcoming Christian environment. (Read entire article.)

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4 comments:

Stephanie A. Mann said...

Did you see Gareth's status on facebook? At least one of his friends thought sure he's Catholic! (I hope at least one of mine thinks I am, too!)
I'll miss you next week at the Conference!

elena maria vidal said...

I know, isn't it funny! I'll miss seeing you, too, Stephanie. I had been looking forward to catching up.

Stephanie A. Mann said...

"Oh, well, we'll catch up some other time." Maybe next year!

elena maria vidal said...

In the meantime, there's always Facebook and Blogger! But I'll call you after the conference to see how things went!