This essay is a Cover Story selection, a weekly feature highlighting the top picks from the editors of America Media.
When I asked a Jesuit friend who has worked for decades with high school students what are the most Frequently Asked Question (FAQs) asked by young people about faith, he said, “Who cares?” And I said, “What?” He laughed and said, “Oh, sorry, I’m not saying that to you! I’m saying that for many young people faith and religion are irrelevant. So the main question is not about some issue about Catholicism, but the whole idea.”
Many young people don’t think about God and don’t pay attention to religion. And when they do pay attention it’s to say how terrible religious people are: narrow-minded, misogynistic, homophobic and so on. So for this essay I spoke with friends who work with young people, and young people themselves, to get the hardest questions. I have come up with seven, some asked by people who aren’t sure about faith, some by those not sure about religion and others who are believers but struggling how to believe and how to belong to a church. Here they are.
1. Who cares? Why care about faith? Why care about God?
The other day I was on vacation with some Jesuit friends and I was walking on the beach. There I was, in a beautiful setting and feeling really happy. Suddenly I started to wonder: Is that all there is? From time to time, we all feel a persistent longing, a need for something more. Part of that we might chalk up to greed, as in, “I want to have even more than I have now.” But it’s also deeper. It’s a longing to know what the point of it all is.
I spoke with friends who work with young people, and young people themselves, to get the hardest questions.
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The Rev. James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, author and editor at large at America
With thanks to America Magazine and Gerard O’Connell, where this article originally appeared.
