Fr. Dan Pattee: What’s Wrong With the World?

There’s a story told that the London Times at one point sought answers from the public to the question: “What’s wrong with the world?” As the story goes, G.K. Chesterton humbly responded with the answer: “I am.” Chesterton would later write a book, entitled What’s Wrong with the World, but today it is a question that has largely been sidestepped.

The modern Catholic and Christian mind is more inclined to proceed to an apologetics of a world shot through with the Transcendentals of truth, goodness, and beauty, which is true enough. Transcendentals are universal, which means they are ubiquitous and are found to some degree in everything that exists. The world is beautiful and good, but there can be at times subtle pressure to turn aside from any consideration of what may be wrong with it. The unspoken pressure can require optimism instead of pessimism in the form of avoiding topics like sin which can seem so negative, even injurious to one’s self-image. …

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