Legion of Mary uses centenary to ask Church to let it help with parish revitalisation

Members of the Legion of Mary praying at the Grotto at Avonmore park, in Mayfield. 

A leading figure in a lay religious group, whose members regularly pray the rosary at grottos around Ireland, has appealed to priests to allow its members work with them to help revitalise parishes.

Bernard Spillane, the acting president of the Cork Comitium of the Legion of Mary, was speaking ahead of the celebration on Tuesday of the centenary of the foundation of what was once one of the most influential lay Catholic groups in the country.

Mr Spillane, who has had a lifelong involvement in the legion, said despite falling vocations and increased workload, some priests are reluctant to allow the Legion of Mary to work in their parishes.

“We are not Holy Joe-types,” he insisted. 

"But we are up to the challenge of parish work, and we are ready and willing to assist priests — if priests want us to do it.

“We wrote to the Bishop of Cork and Ross six months after his consecration offering the legion’s service in evangelisation. 

We said we would do whatever work is needed in parishes. But priests have to buy-in to the legion.

"As we mark our centenary, we would like to bring the legion back into vogue again.” 

Originally called the Association of Our Lady of Mercy, the Legion of Mary was founded in Dublin by Frank Duff on September 7, 1921.

Its members, who all share a devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, tackled serious social problems, including pastoral work with prostitutes and they helped set up the Morning Star hostel for the homeless.

Its first branch, or praesidium, in Cork City was established at St Peter and Paul’s in 1927.

Members visited tenements and patients in hospitals, and sold religious papers and magazines outside churches.

The movement was showcased to bishops from around the world who were attending the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in 1932.

Impressed, they brought the model home to their home countries and legion membership mushroomed internationally. 

By the 1950s, the legion had thousands of members in Ireland, with junior branches for children, intermediate groups for teenagers, and senior groups for over 18s. It became a very influential group within the Catholic Church.

Around this time, its Cork headquarters was at the Dún Mhuire building on the Grand Parade, now owned by MIT, and Mr Spillane said: “The building became a powerhouse for the legion.” 

Members organised social events for hospital patients, they visited residents at St Monica’s Home for the Blind, where they wrote and read letters for the visually impaired, and they called door-to-door doing parish ‘census’ work and encouraging people to return to the church.

They also operated an 'emigration advice bureau' for people moving to England, with members often travelling on the Innisfallen vessel between Cork and the UK offering help and advice to emigrants, putting them in contact with legion members in British cities, and arranging short-term accommodation for them.

But as various abuse scandals rocked the church and its influence in Ireland waned, legion membership declined too.

The last junior branch in Cork met in 2008, there are no intermediate branches in the city, and there are only about 150 senior members left in the city and county — about five or six members per branch — and most are aged 60 or over.

Mr Spillane accepted that some Legion members are involved, albeit outside their Legion work, in anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage campaigns but he said the Legion itself is non-political and does not condone such an approach.

“I’m sure if Jesus walked this earth today, he wouldn't exclude gay people, he wouldn't castigate people for their sexual orientation, or people, who in conscience, take a decision to abort,” he said.

Bishop of Cork and Ross, Fintan Gavin, who will celebrate the centenary celebration Mass at the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne on Cork’s northside at 7.30pm on Tuesday, described the Legion of Mary as a great movement.

“I join with members of the Legion of Mary in our diocese and across the globe in celebrating and giving thanks for the 100 years since the birth of this great movement which has its roots in our own land."