THE SERVANT OF GOD

Alfie Lambe

IN SOUTH AMERICA

EXCERPTS FROM A RECENT TALK BY NOEL LYNCH

(Alfie’s successor in the Argentine )

January 21st was the 50th anniversary of the death of Alphonsus Lambe.  Each year on that date all over South America there are large celebrations with thousands of legionaries gathering to honor him, to pray to him and to ask for his intercession.  They attend Mass, say the Legion Prayers and go out on to the streets to speak to people.  This is repeated several times throughout the day, putting into practice what Alfie taught them.

 Alfie was sent by the Concilium in 1953 to develop the Legion of Mary throughout the South American countries.  But he didn’t limit himself to setting up groups of the Legion.  He did much more because of his burning zeal for souls.  He found that a majority of the people were baptized but knew little about their Faith.  Many had to be reintroduced to the Christian way of life.

 One of the difficulties he encountered were the sects, particularly those sent to South America with the aim of inducing the people to turn their backs on the Catholic Church.  By the time Alfie arrived, he saw there was a major job to be done in winning the people back to the Church.  He taught legionaries of all walks of life and of all ages that everyone must be invited to join the Legion of Mary.

 An example of this was Alfie’s meeting with a young railroad employee, Miguel Mancini.  Alfie asked him if he would like to work for Our Blessed Lady. The reply Miguel gave him was that he was baptized but didn’t go to Mass that often.  Alfie persisted saying that he hadn’t asked him if he was practicing and re-issued the invitation to work for Our Blessed Lady.  Miguel accepted.  A month later he became President of his praesidium, later President of the Curia and in due course he was elected President of the Comitium.  On completion of his term of office he entered the seminary and is now Rector of one of the largest seminaries in South America.

 Alfie taught legionaries how to make everyone an apostle for the Catholic Church. He brought legionaries with him wherever he went and showed them how to engage in apostolic work and how to extend the Legion.  He was an example of a legionary always on duty.

Occasionally legionaries would see Alfie in ‘off-duty’ mode, having a cup of coffee in an open air cafe.  Street children would approach offering to shine his shoes or sell him a paper.  “Come back in 5 minutes” he would say and then he would offer them Legion membership.  These young teenagers went on to do apostolic work in the toughest and roughest areas of their cities.

 At the time, many of the priests who arrived from Europe were suffering from the ravages of World War II.  Despite the after-effects of trauma, illness and incapacity they were invited to become Spiritual Directors and many accepted the invitation.  Some doubted that the Legion of Mary could be a vehicle to transform parishes and bring people back to the Faith.  Some were opposed to having the Legion established within their boundaries.  However, in time those who doubted couldn’t help but be influenced by good reports from neighboring areas where the Legion flourished.

 Those who worked with Alfie spoke of the example he gave not only in his spiritual Life but in everything he did.  They agreed they never saw him sad or depressed, never saw him lose patience, become flustered or complain.  He always had a smile.  And he bore those qualities up to his death.

 Alfie stayed wherever he was offered accommodation, and more often than not he stayed in student hostels.  In those years in South America, students were being influenced by Marxist and Communist doctrines.  Idealistic young men, some would abandon their Faith to take up those ideologies.  While relaxing in the evenings, Alfie would join in the conversation and speak to them about Catholicism.  On one occasion Alfie was threatened by a young man wielding a knife.  On another occasion he received a phone call in the early hours threatening death if he went to the University to establish the Legion there.  This didn’t stop Alfie.

 On yet another occasion while visiting a priest who had just agreed to establish the Legion in his Parish, the priest was called to visit a dying man.  Alfie asked to accompany him to the hospital. After a brief visit to his bedside the priest returned saying the man was a Jew.  Alfie asked permission to speak with him and some short while later asked the priest to return as the man had a desire to be baptized.

Climate changes from extremely cold to extremely hot are part of life in the countries of South America.  Some might have been tempted to train people and allow them to undertake the work.  Not so with Alfie.  He accompanied the legionaries and showed them how to carry out the work.  This is evidenced by work he undertook with a group of seminarians.  During their holidays, Alfie offered to teach them the Legion of Mary system and how to undertake the work.  A group of 14 of them accompanied Alfie on a 24 hour train journey.  He set up the miniature Legion altar he brought with him and they held their first Legion meeting in the carriage.  He then assigned them in pairs to go through the carriages and speak to the passengers about the Mass and what devotion to Our Lady means to a Catholic. After two hours they reported back and discussed what they learned.  During that journey four Legion meetings and work assignments took place.

 Alfie was as much at home the wealthy person as he was with the poor.  The wealthy kept to themselves leading a comfortable life style.  Alfie took the view that they too had souls to be won for the Church.  Those who joined the Legion were assigned to the poor areas donning t-shirts and jeans to do their work.  Alfie praised their work but set them the further challenge of visiting the red light area.  Not believing such existed in their city, Alfie proved them wrong by taking a taxi and being brought in sequence to ten establishments of ill-repute.  The legionaries undertook the challenge and the work in the red light area continues to this day.

 Alfie also had a lighter side to his personality.  He loved to tell a joke or a funny story often told against himself.  He even told of an encounter he had with terrorists who seized him for a couple of hours.  When allowed to make a phone call to prove who he was, Alfie phoned the Irish Ambassador who came to vouch for him. Both he and the Ambassador laughed long and hard when re-telling the story.

Alfie did many things during his short life, some we know about, others we do not.  In Argentina he started the first praesidium for Orthodox members.  He learned the Russian language in the hope of visiting that country.  His wish wasn’t granted as he died a short while later.  He is buried in the vault of the Christian Brothers in Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.  A simple inscription marks his resting place.  But the real testimony to his memory lies in his legacy of many hundreds of thousands of legionaries working throughout South America through their membership of the Legion of Mary, for the Church.

 Alfie Lambe joined the Legion of Mary in Ireland when almost eighteen years old.  Three years later he was one of the youngest of his time to be assigned as a missionary.  After six years he was popularly acclaimed by those who knew him closely as a man of holiness, some comparing him to the Little Flower.  Bishops and priests consider him to be Argentinean and he is grouped with their other Candidates for Canonization.

 People all over South America pray to Alfie Lambe and many see him as a Patron for Youth.  Their love for him is seen each year in January when thousands of people gather to celebrate the life of an ordinary Catholic lad who had a zeal for souls and put that into practice.