October Allocutio 2026

Magnifica Humanitas is served by the Body of Christ

Fr. Liam Ó Cuív

(Reading: Chapter 32, 11 Obstacles in the way of starting there will always be. p. 190)

Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical letter on Safeguarding the Human Person in the time of Artificial Intelligence published in May of this year, is entitled Magnifica Humanitas. In its introduction the Holy Father speaks of humanity today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together (MH1).

Further on Pope Leo develops these two biblical images. That of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11 1-9) where the people seek stability and power and above all “to make a name” for themselves. However, as the Pope points out, it was a project conceived without reference to God with a uniformity that eliminated diversity and chose homogenization over communion, and he states, “When a city is built on pride and the claim to self-sufficiency, ... the result is not unity but dispersion” (MH7).

Pope Leo contrasts this to the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. Nehemiah begins with prayer and fasting and intercession for the people. Then, rather than impose solutions from above, he convenes the families, assigns to each of them a section of the wall to rebuild, listening to and addressing their concerns. So it is that the city is reborn through the shared responsibility of all. “It is”, he points out, “an undertaking with God at the centre” (8). Pope Leo sums up the choice before us at this time and then, having said that we must avoid the “Babel syndrome”, directs us saying” let us choose the “way of Nehemiah” which highlights the importance of working together to make the City of God a safe place for returning exiles” (MH10). This is repeated at the very end of the introduction to his encyclical when Pope Leo writes, “With the heart of a shepherd and a father, I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good, so that humanity will never lose its beauty, and the world once again will come to recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to dwell.” (MH16).

The choice presented by the Holy Father to us, which emanates from his experience as an Augustinian missionary and pastor, has always been a challenge that we have faced as legionaries, and will also continue to face in a world that so often discounts the power of God and seeks to eliminate the limits and weakness of humanity. From its inception under the wise leadership of Frank Duff, the Legion has sought to eschew all forms of exclusivity.

At this year’s Legion pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady at Knock, Bishop Niall Coll stated that, “Frank Duff’s greatest achievement was not founding an organisation. It was the vision of the Church that lay behind it. He believed that ordinary men and women, through baptism, had a real part to play in the mission of Christ. He believed that prayer should lead to service. He believed that devotion to Our Lady should lead us more deeply into the life of her Son. And he believed that when ordinary people allow Christ to work through them, extraordinary things can happen”.

Even before his founding of the Legion of Mary, in his 1916 pamphlet “Can We Be Saints?” Frank Duff argued that every single person without exception is called to be a saint by doing the ordinary daily duties of life extraordinarily well. In this conviction as to the call received by all in baptism, he anticipated the Universal Call to Holiness of Vatican II, a call not restricted to priests, monks and nuns.

When he established the Legion of Mary in 1921, his primary goal was to tap into what he called the "untapped reservoir of apostolic energy" among ordinary citizens. Central to all Frank Duff did was his profound insight into the mystery of the Church as the Body of Christ with which God inspired him just as he had inspired St. Paul. Our founder believed that ordinary Catholics should stop acting as mere "spectators" in the Church and become active participants. The Legion of Mary is built entirely on the principle that God works through the simple and humble. His groundbreaking vision was eventually recognized globally when he was invited to attend the Second Vatican Council as a lay observer.

Frank Duff was absolutely convinced that we encounter Christ in others. His desire to reach out to the suffering Christ in others was most vividly on display in his direct action on the streets of the impoverished Dublin of his day. He had encountered and reached out to the poor while active in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and soon after the foundation of the Legion of Mary set up the Morning Star and Regina Coeli hostels and established a direct outreach program to help homeless individuals and prostitutes trapped in Dublin's notorious "Monto" red-light district.

I speak as we celebrate Mission Sunday in our Church. Let us as legionaries safeguard in all we do the vision that has inspired the Legion of Mary since its foundation. Let us see ourselves, united in the Body of Christ, as called to rebuild Jerusalem. Mary, the Mother of Christ, is mother of the Body of Christ. We are all her children. May we humbly safeguard the spirit of the Legion, the spirit of Mary, the humble servant of the Lord.