Bishop Dowd of Montreal wrote the following while participating in the Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment in Rome in October 2018:
The 4 basic questions I believe constitute the corners and edges that anchor the puzzle. These questions are:
- Who is God?
- If God is good, why is there evil in he world?
- If God is good but there is evil in the world, what has God done about it?
- If God is good but there is evil in the world and God is doing something about it, how can we be part of it?
It is my conviction that these questions haunt the heart of every person, religious or not, and that the Christian faith can give a complete answer to those questions. God is love, the tragedy of sin, the drama and beauty of salvation history, and the call to vocation.
Also in his paper he mentions his support for Bishop Barron from California. Bishop Barron said the following in his “intervention” to Pope Francis:
What would a new apologetics look like? First, it would arise from the questions that young people spontaneously ask. It would not be imposed from above but would rather emerge organically from below, a response to the yearning of the mind and the heart. Here it would take a cue from the method of St. Thomas Aquinas. The austere texts of the great theological master in point of fact emerged from the lively give-and-take of the quaestiones disputatae that stood at the heart of the educational process in the medieval university. Thomas was deeply interested in what young people were really asking. So should we.
Have a closer look at Bishop Barron’s “A New Apologetics” and Bishop Dowd’s “Putting together the puzzle of faith.” What discussion points, ideas, or questions do you find agreeable?