What's the cost of loss of faith?

Just got off the phone with my 16 year old nephew. His good friend committed suicide. This is the first death that's ever directly affected my nephew.

Is the incredible increase in suicide among the young a result of more than the disease of depression that afflicts so many? Why are so many teens and young adults depressed?

I wonder if some of the underlying difficulty is a lack of faith, a chronic absence of hope, an inability to trust, in oneself, family, friends, community, society... God.

We have to strive to provide our young people with the strength they need to meet the inevitable difficulties and suffering that every human person experiences. Faith, a realistic, relational, religiously practiced and expressed faith, is a way for God to be a powerful presence in young lives. Such faith can serve as to help young people confront the nihilism and meaninglessness too many teens and young adults experience as a crushing burden.