Vatican City: As Brother Kevin Crowley OFM Cap., founder and director of the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin prepares to retire from feeding and providing assistance to some of Ireland’s most disadvantaged, he says after 50 years it’s sad to see people suffering hardship in 2022.

Tributes are being paid to Brother Kevin Crowley who will retire at the end of the month.

The 87-year-old devoted his life to the poor.

He founded the Capuchin Day Centre on Bow Street in Dublin in 1969. For over 50 years, this Capuchin Friar has become synonymous with helping the poor and homeless of the city.

The Day Centre has provided hot meals, food parcels, clothing and day care facilities for people who are homeless and in need. It also offers medical services, chiropody clinics, optical service and advice and information clinics.

In August 2018, Pope Francis visited the Centre during his visit to Ireland.

Brother Kevin told the Pope that from humble beginnings of providing 50 meals a day, it was providing over 800 meals by 2018. Brother Kevin said the primary concern each day was the dignity and respect of each person attending the Centre.

Pope Francis with Br Kevin at the Capuchin Day Centre, Dublin, August 2018 

On 21 December last year, the Centre handed out around 3,000 food vouchers to help people over the Christmas period.

In a statement, the Archbishop of Dublin commended Brother Kevin for his work and congratulated him on his retirement.

Archbishop Dermot Farrell said Brother Kevin's work with staff and volunteers transformed the lives of those who availed of the services at the centre. "One can only marvel at the many people he personally served. He was able to see Christ in the people he met. His was a love that reached out," he said.

Brother Kevin is expected to return to west Cork where his family is based.

As the director prepares to retire at 87 after decades of tireless work, he laments that in 2022 many people are facing serious economic difficulties. He also reiterates that not enough is being done to provide families in Dublin with affordable housing.

“The housing situation is cruel; people are finding it most difficult to be housed. And then as well as that, families are finding it almost impossible to make ends meet, and that’s a huge crisis.

What I’m witnessing most at the moment is the fear of the unknown at what is going to be the future, and will things get worse rather that better; and at the moment, the way I see it, especially for the poor people, and not just necessarily for homeless people, or people who are struggling in their jobs, and especially young people; it’s almost impossible for them to get a mortgage for a house,” he says.

He points out that until more affordable homes are built, there is going to be a crisis, not just for the homeless but for young couples who want to get a foot on the housing ladder.

He also highlights that the cost of renting at the moment is “absolutely frightening for people.”

The Capuchin Friar expresses his sadness that in 2022 “we have people queuing up here every day for food and especially on a Wednesday morning we have over a thousand families coming for food parcels, and then on a Monday morning we have around two to three hundred mothers and babies queuing up.”

“That should not be the case in 2022,” he says.

Br. Kevin points out that the Centre has seen an increase in the amount of people coming for food. The biggest crisis, he says, is not being able to afford rent and household bills which have gone up considerably in the last few months due to the ongoing cost of living crisis which has hit many parts of Europe.

When the director started the Capuchin Day Centre in 1969, he notes that there was the “problem of drink”. Now, he says, the problem is drugs, adding that “it’s frightening to see the number of kids out selling drugs.”