Frank Duff and ecumenism

I have had reason over the last few days to be reading about the life of Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary (though one of his biographers, Leon O Broin, observes that he saw disagreement written all over Frank Duff's face whenever this was said in his hearing - the most Frank Duff would himself admit to was being a co-founder, along with the others who attended the "first meeting").

In passing, I have come across two accounts of Frank Duff's approach to ecumenism. Frank started a movement of prayer for Christian unity, composing a prayer that could be used by Christians of different denominations. Another of Frank's endeavours was the Mercier Society, founded in 1942, and aimed at bringing together Christians of different denominations in the interest of promoting mutual understanding. This ceased to operate as it was considered to be a breach of the provisions of then Canon Law - and this was, of course, decades before Vatican II.
But Frank Duff apparently often managed to find a way of asking non-Catholic friends if they would want to become Catholics - he was passionately concerned that they did not have the fullness of Catholic faith.

A good account of Frank Duff's approach to ecumenism can be found in an Allocutio (a kind of pep talk) given at Concilium (the highest governing committee of the Legion) in January 2008: go here.

According to Leon O Broin, Frank Duff was not an ecumenist in the sense that would have been held by many after Vatican II:

He was essentially a believer in the direct method approach to conversions, and would have read the accounts of the Malines Conversations as holding out a hope that the Anglicans would come over en bloc. If he personally ever got half a chance he would ask the non-Catholic party - with, of course, a courtesy that eliminated any danger of giving offence - whether he had considered the Catholic claims or would like to do so, and he would stress how important it was that he should.