The crisis facing today’s young men is a crisis for the Church

My husband has a coaster on his desk printed with the words, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”. It brings a wry smile every once in a while, largely because we know that trope to be far from true. As a wife and mother, I am happy to admit I need my husband a whole lot more than a finned creature needs a velocipede. Sadly, though, not all men know this to be true.

A litany of challenges face today’s young men. Men make up close to 80 per cent of suicides, have lower levels of education than their female counterparts, and make up 95 per cent of the prison population. An epidemic of fatherlessness has undoubtedly cemented the crisis of masculinity. If it’s a man’s world, it surely isn’t much of one. 

The most recent nail in the coffin of male morale was published in a think tank report last week that found young men underearn their female contemporaries by an average £2,200 a year – tipping the gender pay gap away from men. And, since the pandemic, the number of young men not in employment, education or training has increased by a whopping 40 per cent, far higher than the 7 per cent increase among young women. 

This crisis of masculinity should concern not only policy makers and politicians, but all faithful Catholics. The Church needs strong and reliable men to be good fathers, priests and religious. If men are in crisis, it won’t be long before women and children are too. 

Writing in the wake of the Industrial Revolution that permanently changed man’s relationship with work, Pope Leo XIII made clear in his encyclical Rerum Novarum the vital importance of dignified work for men, not least considering their role as husbands and fathers. He deemed it “a most sacred law of nature that a father should provide food and all necessaries for those whom he has begotten”. Unfortunately, men’s work-related challenges did not end with the Industrial Revolution. Today’s young men struggle to be the primary breadwinners in a relationship, let alone earn enough to sustain a family.

We are foolish to think boys brought to church on Sundays will be insulated perfectly from all the challenges facing them in the secular world. Indeed, men’s morale continues to get knocked and buffeted in the wake of feminism, both outside and inside the Church.  

In an interview a few years ago, Cardinal Burke assessed that “the radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalised.” He lamented that “apart from the priest the sanctuary has become full of women. The activities in the parish and even the liturgy have been influenced by women and have become so feminine in many places that men do not want to get involved”. Although Burke’s assessment might not represent all parishes, the feminisation of the Church is hard to dispute. Men make up only a third of Catholic parishes, altar boys’ numbers decline with the introduction of female servers, and emotive liturgical reforms like the “sign of peace” leave many men cold. Parishes must go against the grain to attract young men.

Perhaps this helps explain why in more traditional parishes, men are not so sidelined. Indeed, among Gen Z, men are more likely to be religious than women. These young believers also tend to be more traditional and observant than older generations. Not only does the Old Rite avoid the feminised flourishes of the liturgical reforms of the 1960s, but traditional devotions and practices like pilgrimages can physically and spiritually challenge men. Young people, men in particular, perform well when they are challenged. There’s a reason women play coy – women’s wisdom tells us that playing a little hard to get tends to attract a higher calibre of man. Men like a challenge and having to prove oneself seldom hurts the ego. 

If we present the Christian life as one that requires more than just showing up to Mass on a Sunday, men will rise to the occasion. Similarly, when secular society raises its expectations of male attainment and stops promoting the idea that men are the cause of all social ills, men might just strive to do better, finally believing they can.  

As we approach the Feast of St Joseph later this month, perhaps we should ask for his intercession in the temporal and spiritual battles facing today’s men. After all, we wouldn’t want a fish and a bicycle to reflect the dependency between the two sexes, would we?

(VATICAN CITY, VATICAN – MARCH 07: A man prays during the nightly rosary prayer service for the health of Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square on March 6, 2025 in Vatican City, Italy | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The post The crisis facing today’s young men is a crisis for the Church first appeared on Catholic Herald.

The post The crisis facing today’s young men is a crisis for the Church appeared first on Catholic Herald.