Frank Duff's Suggestions as to Legion Works

MARIA LEGIONIS, JUNE 1997

[What follows are excerpts from an article by Frank Duff entitled Upgrading the Legion Work which appeared in Maria Legionis, Issue No. 4/1976. Ed.]

The question of the nature of the work of the Church presented itself at its very beginning. Our Lord's command on Mount Olivet had been that His disciples were to go out over the whole world and seek to give the Gospel to every man. That was clear cut. The disciples saw it in no other light and they acted accordingly. But we see from the Acts of the Apostles (6, 1-6) that this created a problem. It was the care of the widows and those who needed charity. The missionaries of the Gospel had no time for that work, important though it was. The tremendous judgment which proceeded from the twelve Apostles was: "It is not desirable that we should forsake the Word of God and serve at tables". The remedy was proceeded to of ordaining deacons who would attend to it.

From the very origin of the Church you had that distinction as between works proposing itself. First: the special characteristic work of the Church, the giving of the Gospel. Second, the care and the winning back of the weaker brethren. Third: the looking after the physical necessities.

As means of sending legionary spirit soaring, apart from the precious direct results, nothing could be more potent than the Peregrinatio and its miniature edition, the Exploratio Dominicalis (which may be translated as the Sunday Search for Souls). As a newcomer the latter requires a word of explanation. It is a mini Peregrinatio which proposes that every praesidium should at least annually go as a body to a place of spiritual need at some distance and spend a Sunday, or perhaps a week-end, dealing with the problems. The travelling should not consume an undue proportion of the time available. With the best of goodwill only a proportion of legionaries will be in a position to undertake the Peregrinatio. The Exploratio would be within the reach of all.

I proceed to some suggestions as to works.

1. First and foremost is to be placed Conversion. Sufficient has already been said in regard to its key place.

2. Next, the Preservation of the Faith. Shaking faith has always been with us. Now the multitude appears to be unbelieving. Many of those encountered hold the philosophy that one religion is as good as another. The approach to people on the street has proved itself to be easy and most fruitful. It must be expanded. This apostolate seems to require some premises on the spot to which contacts can be brought for more intensive interview, or even for Confession. A hut or caravan would serve this purpose. Indeed by its very informality it would strike a novel note and would appeal to difficult types who would not go to a church. Good legionaries should be thrown into this wonderful way of entering into handigrips with neglect and unbelief. That primary use of the hut or caravan would be in the evening. During the daytime it could possibly be employed for other legionary purposes, such as to sell religious literature, Rosaries, scapulars, medals, etc. The staffing would provide a suitable work for elderly and less active legionaries.

3. The conducting of branches of the Pioneers, which is a temperance society under the care of the Jesuit Fathers. It is recommendable under several heads. Drinking probably represents the most dangerous aspect of life at the moment. Everything seems to be geared into it. Women and the young are caught up by it. And once the habit is formed little can be done. The Pioneers operate especially by way of prevention and at the same time nibbles away at alcoholism itself. It provides the proper motive for abstention, that is self-sacrifice and reparation, and it keeps this motive in evidence by the wearing of an emblem of the Sacred Heart.

4. Propagation of the Brown Scapular which is so strongly recommended in the Handbook. Every Legion centre should run a periodic enrolment in the way that some of them are doing at the moment. Again, this could be used to lead on those contacted.

5. Despite manifest evidence of its effectiveness, praesidia continue uninterested in the Patricians. One might enquire if the subject is ever recommended at Curia meetings. If it happens to be, is it a nerveless reference which almost demands inaction, something like the mention which is made of Maria Legionis?

The number of pages given to this movement in the pages of the Handbook shows the seriousness with which the Legion regards it. The assertion is made that by an intelligent, or what we might call a scientific, use of the Patricians a whole district could be not only instructed in the faith but energised.

6. The conducting of every Legion work should embody the purpose of recruiting for the Legion. The fact that a person has been induced to take a step forward in his Catholicity suggests that he can be induced to take a succession of them - just as one almost automatically mounts a stairway.

7. Hospital and institutional visitation should be inspected with a view to seeing if it provides substantial work for those engaged on it. As a work it is certainly in the lower bracket of need. Would it not be an excellent way of providing for our elderly members and for Intermediates? It must be justified. There is no justification for something which reaches no higher than harmless little chats, the comforting and consoling which has taken such a grip on the Legion.

8. Club work should be examined in order to determine it it is repaying Legion effort. Is it serving a definite religious purpose? If it is merely humanistic, it should be dropped.

9. Book Barrows seem to have been dropped. Can a valid excuse be offered for this? Surely a book barrow in a street is a religious lighthouse, a jolt to the non-religious, a reminder to the passerby that religion exists, a claiming of attention on behalf of the Catholic Church?

10. The Juniors continue with us not as an asset but as an unsolved problem. We are not drawing proper dividends from them. We are using them on inferior occupations and this harms them. Generally speaking, they should be used for spiritual approach to those of their own age. I specify one case of a praesidium of twelve members aged about 12 which worked among non-Catholic children in a State School, bringing five of them and one adult into the Church in six months.

11. Could Juniors not be substituted for Seniors in dealing with institutions, works of service etc., it being understood that there would be senior supervision? Newspaper work should be discontinued as junior work.

12. Are our praesidia, our legionaries, our works, our Legion houses being adequately used? Each one of the above should be analysed from this point of view of justifying themselves. Similarly, each good legionary should be studied from the angle of better utilisation. Can a new work be built on him or her?

I sum up. Mary, the Queen of the Legion, has the office of mothering mankind. We have the privilege of helping her and she depends on that co-operation. It is woeful if in such wonderful circumstances we only take in hand the things of lesser consequences, leaving multitudes in real deprivation.

Frank Duff