The Evils of Unemployment

The Catholic internet world, particularly reactionary corners of it, went into a tizzy last month when an interview between Pope Francis and a notorious atheist Italian journalist was deemed to fall short of the standards of, as Mark Shea would say, the Real Catholics[TM].
A line that merited particular scorn was the Holy Father's reported quote of:

“The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old."

Of course, later details that emerged showed that the interview was, in the finest traditions of continental journalism, reconstructed after-the-fact by 89-year-old Eugenio Scalfari. Realizing the loose interpretation of the Pope's sentiments were being willfully misinterpreted, the Vatican decided to take down the link to the interview on its website.




But even if the words are inartful and not the Pope's own, an article in today's New York Times illustrates the reality that faces European youth every day:

Five years after the economic crisis struck the Continent, youth unemployment has climbed to staggering levels in many countries: in September, 56 percent in Spain for those 24 and younger, 57 percent in Greece, 40 percent in Italy, 37 percent in Portugal and 28 percent in Ireland. For people 25 to 30, the rates are half to two-thirds as high and rising.

In this context, it is not surprising that a culture in which the dignity of work is not only not being pursued, but is unavailable to those who would pursue it, would be one of the most tangible challenges facing a Christian in Europe today. The importance of work has been a principle tenet since St. Paul, as we heard in Mass today, ("If anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat") to Pope John Paul II. The decay of civilization in mainland Europe is bearing fruit in the diminishing birthrates and the desperate work situation facing those in the peak of their productive years.
A sclerotic society in which every other young person is unable to find work is a society which has found a recipe for apathy and disengagement. An advanced welfare state firmly entrenched at the core of civic engagement is a large driver of the economic paralysis, but regardless of the cause, a pastor's role is to address the needs of his flock and make the Gospel real in their lives.
While garbled through a Roman game of telephone, that was the message Pope Francis was trying to deliver. And trying to imagine ourselves in the context of a tremendous waste of human capital, drive, and potential should make us understand his words as a summons to those lonely and disaffected young adults in Madrid, Lisbon, and Athens that someone is thinking of them and believes in them.