Editorial: Remembering Frank Duff
Fr. Roger Charest, SMM
Remembering . . .
Frank Duff, whose long and fruitful career . . .
. . . in the field of the lay Apostolate in the Church has stamped him as a giant among giants. He will be remembered by many people for many things. His spirit, which has guided the Legion from its infancy until the moment of his death (Nov. 7, 1980), will live on, as writers attempt to capsulate it within the pages of their biographies of this extraordinary man of God.
Having been privileged to meet him on several occasions and corresponded with him (since 1947), some of my own memories of the man may be worth sharing with you, if only through a few random excerpts of his correspondence with me over the years. I believe that private letters to friends, and people of similar interests, reveals a great deal about their personalities, their likes and dislikes, their successes and frustrations, their hopes and ambitions.
. . . Frank Duff
Frank Duff meeting with Fr. Roger Charest, SMM, Managing Editor of the original Queen of All Hearts magazine.
Return to The Queen: Articles
On the occasion of receiving the University of Dayton’s Marian Award in 1956, . . .
. . . he publicly expressed his love for the Mother of God in these words. “There is no saying that could be addressed to me that would give me greater pleasure than to tell me I have served Our Lady”. In a letter to me, dated Feb. 14, 1955, he had expressed his eagerness to know Our Lady better. We had just shipped him back issues of the Queen of All Hearts magazine.
“How can I thank you for this thoughtful act. I am always eager to read anything on the subject of Our Blessed Lady and certainly you are attending to my education in that respect.” Fifteen years later, on Nov. 17, 1970: “I am deeply grateful for your thoughtfulness in sending me the issues of the “QUEEN” as they appear. I go carefully through every line of it. Always I find things which educate me, and the whole is refreshing as an example of loyalty to and appreciation of Our Blessed Mother in these days when villains are trying to diminish her.”
Love for Our Lady
His letters always ended with a note of gratitude . . .
. . . for all that I or anyone ever did for Our Lady and her Legion. For example, the closing sentence from his Nov. 15, 1974 letter. “I must not close this letter without saying my usual word of thanks to you for all you are doing for the Legion”. His gratitude was the type that made you want to do even more for Our Lady and her Legion as you can see from the excerpt from an August 15, 1970, letter. “I feel certain that you could not be devoting your life to any better purpose than the assisting of the Legion at this present juncture. It seems to contain everything that is necessary as a remedy against the devastating tendencies of the moment. It has Faith, it has a proper appreciation of Mary, it believes in order instead of anarchy, and it believes in work instead of oratory.”
Frank Duff: A Deep Love . . .
A few months after the election of Pope John XXIII, Frank Duff proved to be a man of keen vision and profound insight. Here is part of what he wrote me on Jan. 10, 1959. “It seems to be the fashion to regard him (Pope John XXIII) as a mere transition or caretaker Pope, who will be nice to everybody. Yet, who will not attempt anything very serious in his Pontificate. I must say that I would disagree profoundly with that estimate of him. He is certainly no benevolent old gent. He is a man of great ability and of infinite astuteness. I am convinced that he will endeavor to place his name in golden letters upon the Papal Scroll, and I am just left wondering as to what form he will do this according to.” He couldn’t have been more on target for that one!
. . . for Montfort’s Way
Second only to his love for God and His holy Mother, . . .
. . . was his gratitude and devotion towards St. Louis Marie de Montfort, to whom he attributed his “discovery” of True Devotion to Mary and the subsequent founding of the Legion of Mary. Discussing Montfort’s great influence in the Church, he wrote on Jan. 31, 1961. The Legion throughout the world “invokes Saint Louis Marie as one of its patrons, and indeed points to him as one to whom they are particularly indebted. Who are the other Saints with whom he rubs shoulders in the Tessera (Legion Prayer)? They are all the major, primary saints of the Church, and yet Saint Louis Marie is being invoked on a level with them.
Really, I wonder nowadays that he is not a Saint invoked as much as Saint Anthony for instance?”
From these few excerpts taken from his many letters to me, our readers will agree that Frank Duff did indeed serve Our Lady well!
