Irish Examiner view: Br Kevin Crowley is a living saint 

On his retirement, we salute Br Kevin of the Capuchin Day Centre, who has been a tireless campaigner against want

Br Kevin Crowley greeting Pope Francis as he arrives for a visit to the Capuchin Day Centre on Bowe Street in Dublin, as part of his visit to Ireland in 2018. Picture: Maxwell's/PA

The retirement of Br Kevin Crowley, the founder of the Capuchin Day Centre in inner-city Dublin, after over half a century of service to the community, is truly the end of the era. 

Br Kevin established the charity for homeless people in 1969 after he came across several men eating out of bins in the capital and it has since gone on to provide over 700 meals on a daily basis to those battling alcoholism, drug addiction, and poverty. It also puts 1,500 food parcels into the hands of poor and homeless people every Wednesday.

In recent years, Br Kevin has become the public face of the Capuchin Order’s fight against poverty, and has also been a tireless campaigner against want. 

Br Kevin Crowley with Siobhan Donnelly from Lucan and Marie Twomey, from Cork before the Cycle for Br Kevin from Dublin to Clonakilty in West Cork earlier this summer. Picture: Damien Eagers

His sadness this week that there is any need in this day and age for the centre in the first place is a terrible indictment of modern Irish society.

It is unlikely that his superiors in the order think of the work of Br Kevin and his assistants in the centre as anything other than duty, but the thousands who receive their assistance on a weekly basis must keenly feel the need for this humble Christian man to be elevated to sainthood.

We wish Br Kevin well in his retirement in his native West Cork.

He will truly be missed.