LETTERS TO A YOUNG

CATHOLIC: THE ART OF MENTORING

by George Weigel

Basic Books, 2004

251 pages, $22.50

Available in bookstores

While some “grown-ups” stumble whenever they try to rally young people around the Catholic faith, others just seem to have the hang of it. George Weigel is at the head of the class in the latter group.

Best known as the author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, the Catholic theologian has mastered the art of articulating the Catholic faith in language accessible to contemporary Catholics. Now Weigel has aimed his gift for clarity and insight squarely at Catholics in their late teens and early 20s.

Like a tour guide leading a field trip around the world, Weigel presents 14 letters — each sent from a different location — that, together, add up to a catechesis program that is as compelling as it is thorough. From his explanation of Marian doctrines to the Church's sexual ethic to the Christian response to human suffering, Weigel shows an acute awareness of the difficulties young Catholics face as they try to understand and live their faith in today's world.

With each letter, the reader is transported to a historic Catholic site. The setting serves as a springboard for discussing some key aspect of the Catholic faith. A description of Cardinal Newman's Birmingham Oratory, for example, provides context for a discussion of liberalism's effect on religion. A walking tour of the Sistine Chapel opens a talk on the creation of man, body and soul, in which Weigel offers a beautiful description of the Holy Father's theology of the body.

Weigel attempts to reveal the Catholic faith by inviting the reader to “breathe in” the air of the Catholic faith and understand, perhaps for the first time, that there is a uniquely Catholic way of seeing the universe. He succeeds largely on the vividness of his descriptions and the depth of his knowledge.

True to the New Evangelization the book seeks to advance, Weigel puts the personhood of Christ at the center of all his explanations. Urging the reader to see all of history as His Story, Weigel says of Jesus: “He is the true measure of who we are. In his Holy Face, we meet the truth about ourselves.” Throughout, he demonstrates how Christ is “the answer to the question that is every human life.”

Letters to a Young Catholic is not just for young Catholics, and it fills a much-needed gap in Catholic apologetics today. Without anger or needless condemnation, Weigel shows how Jesus Christ is the answer to all those questions that are profoundly human.

“In Christ,” Weigel writes, “we meet the truth that man without God has lost touch with the deepest yearnings of the human heart … [W]e meet the merciful Father, whose mercy redeems our humanity and fulfills its true destiny.”

One minor distraction: Effective as Weigel's use of historic Catholic locations is, he has to stretch at times to connect a physical site with the catechesis that follows. The value of the information and the profundity of the perspective, however, more than make up for any bumpy transitions.

It's now more clear than ever that Weigel is an astute student of John Paul — that great champion of young people — and equally evident that his studies have made him a well-qualified teacher of the Holy Father's thought. This, combined with his ability to articulate ancient truths in contemporary language, makes Weigel an authentic interpreter of the vision of the Second Vatican Council. In short, Letters to a Young Catholic is, like the subject of Weigel's best-known work, a “witness to hope.”

Ryan Connors is a philosophy major at Boston College.