Can Bad Trees Bear Good Fruit?
Life Teen has had its detractors and critics, and rightly so. In particular, for a time its liturgical approachcomplete with rock Masses and youth huddled around the altarwent too far in accommodating the sensibilities of todays youth. To its credit, the national Life Teen office and most local Life Teen groups have graciously accepted the Churchs intervention and guidance in this area. The key point here, however, is the indisputable fact that despite any perceived shortcomings, as well as the more obvious failings of its founder, Life Teen has become arguably the most successful Catholic youth program in the United States, helping to bring many disaffected youth into the Churchsome even to the point of discovering vocations to the priesthood or religious life. There are many other notable examples of this phenomenon. One of the bright spots of the Church in the postconciliar era has been the emergence of the Legionaries of Christ congregation/Regnum Christi movement. Just recently, I
