I’ve always had my suspicions of the cult of personality over at the Legionnaires of Christ. But I should be clear: one of my best friends from college joined up, and I’ve visited him a few times at his novitiate only a few miles from my apartment in New Haven. I went to his vows Mass, and I would go, every once in a while, to a Legion-sponsored religious society in undergrad. I think the Legionaries have added much more than they’ve taken away from the Church–even if I wish they would talk more about justice and be a little more welcoming to women in the Church, I’m deeply grateful for the way they’ve encouraged piety and radical commitment to the faith. And so it’s a sad day to learn about some pretty devestating evidence of their founder’s misdeeds (a good roundup in the NYTimes and an embarassingly poorly-edited version in NCR by the-man-wh0-knows-the-Legion Jason Berry, who’s also the husband of one of my profs back at Loyola New Orleans, and then the Legion’s own paper)

I do think this says something about the order he founded (other major orders were founded by saints who, even if full of past sins, did repent and lead new lives). But I also think that you can tell a tree by its fruits. So give the Legionaries time–I think good fruit will come.