Nuncio examines challenges American youth face
June 10, 2014
In a recent address to Catholic educators at Fordham University, Archbishop Carlo Mario Vigano, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, examined the challenges faced by youth in the United States.
“Our young people are facing challenges of secularism, materialism, and relativism as never before,” he said in his May 28 address, which was reprinted in the latest English edition of L’Osservatore Romano.
A recent study “has shown that the rate of unbelief among our young people is increasing at one percent per year-- having moved from 25% to 35% declared unbelievers in only ten years,” he continued. “If we continue at this rate, we will have more unbelievers than believers among our young people in just 15 years. As St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict affirmed, a decline of religion and belief leads to an increase in materialism and ethical relativism.”
Archbishop Vigano called upon Catholic educators to respond to five challenges faced by youth: “the challenge of the false dichotomy between faith and reason, particularly the false dichotomy between faith and science”; “the challenge of moral relativism, particularly the loss of virtue and principles within our culture”; “the challenge of suffering and evil”; “the challenge of the culture of death”; and “the challenge of social injustice and globalization.”
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