Become A Man Young Men Can Look Up To
The modern world has failed to offer men a strong, virtuous image of masculinity. It’s time for Catholic founders to build what they can admire.
Hey Folks, today we’ve got a bit longer post where we are actually riffing on the key ideas discussed on our recent podcast with Juan Dominguez. The man behind the Simple Man blog (now Ad Aeternum).
It was a great episode that we thought deserved more reflection.
IN TODAY’S ISSUE
News/Events: Amazing time in D.C. last week and a meetup in Houston tonight.
Feature Content: The 3 biggest Risks Modern Young Men Are Facing This Century
[read time: ~7 min | word count 1,472]
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There are a lot of young men out there who are very, very lonely
And desperately in need of guidance.
This has led to a concerning number of depressed men. A lot of purposelessness and a sadly high rate of suicides. In the US alone, suicide is the 2nd most common cause of death for men under the age of 45.
There are a ton of ideologies that have gained a foothold over the past couple of years that all have their roots in relativism and a selfish vision of the world.
Which we know ends up fueling this purposelessness.
We talked about the #1 reason why men are turning their backs on God, and the 3 biggest risks modern men are facing in this century
Most Catholic men get far away from the Church because they experience some sort of hypocrisy in its local leaders.
We know that this is a misunderstanding. The goal is not to get closer to the people in the Church. The goal is always to grow closer to God, with the Church as the medium He left for us to do so.
BUT… for the people who are having their first encounters, WE are the Gospel.
The people in the Church are the Gospel.
So any signs of immorality are enough for young men to sign off.
He was not talking about claims against the Pope or the Church leaders, but the people around them who were in charge of their own Catholic formation.
In his own words:
“I’ve gotten into many conversations with atheist friends, and almost always the reason why they don’t want to go near the Church is that they saw some form of hypocrisy in the people who claim to be Catholic.
They’ll say something like, ‘I used to go to prayer groups and rosary groups, and I just saw that people leading them weren’t really good people. So I don’t want to have anything to do with them’”
This is one of the reasons why we as Catholic Founders, have a deep responsibility
Christ commands the apostles to be the light of the world and the salt of the world. He tells them explicitly, “A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” We are meant to be out there reflecting the light of Christ.
Not in a prideful way.
That’s the constant spiritual battle: not falling for the enemy’s lies and glorifying ourselves, but always pointing to Christ.
We are commanded to be out there.
In Juan’s own words:
“We have failed in presenting men with a strong, masculine image of what it means to be a devout Catholic.
If the average Catholic man were more masculine, disciplined, and strong in his virtues, I think more lost young men might be drawn to the faith. If the Church presented a more masculine alternative to the searching, disillusioned guy, he might actually be more open to trying the faith.
The problem is that, from what I have seen in myself and in many others, people do not see that in the Church. They do not see men they can admire.”
From there, we got into the 3 biggest threats driving modern young men toward hopelessness and purposelessness
And what can we do about it as Catholic Founders:
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