Why Do Young People Leave the Faith? by Anthony Esolen

By Anthony Esolen, Crisis Magazine, July 23, 2020

Why do young people leave the Faith? I was asked that question the other day, and I replied, off the cuff, that it was two things: Their imaginations had not been formed by the Faith and our magnificent heritage of arts and letters, and they wanted to have sex.

Most of the reasons that people give are either variations of the first, or excuses for the second. The latter make no sense. For example, people will say that they had to leave the Faith because some priests did the same evil things with children that some people from every other line of work have done. It is as if you said, “Because that filthy vicious traitor stabbed Christ in the back, I’m going to do it, too, but I’ll be nicer about it and won’t use a knife.”  ….