Young people are turning, and returning, to the Catholic Church as they search “for clarity, not ambiguity,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in an editorial published Thursday in The New York Post.

Quoting the late Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, Fulton J. Sheen, he wrote, “’People aren’t looking for a question mark, but an exclamation point!’”

Cardinal Dolan noted that not only has he noticed Mass attendance, especially by young people, has increased since the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8, and also attributed this growth to several factors: the impending canonization of young role models like Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, the Jubilee Year of Hope and recently completed Jubilee of Young People, effective young adult outreach programs, strong Catholic educational institutions, and campus ministries.

The world does not answer the questions that young people have, he wrote. “The world seems a big mess! War, injustice, famine, violence, bigotry, mass shootings, political vitriol — those inclined to look to the world for meaning now know better.”

“The old Baltimore catechism began with a simple question: Why did God make me? Its answer: God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven,” Cardinal Dolan wrote.

Those teachings offer eternal answers to questions that every generation faces. “The Catholic faith, centered on Jesus and His Church, its belief in eternal, unwavering truth, and a moral code that differentiates between good and evil, grace and sin, provides that direction,” Cardinal Dolan wrote.

Read the full editorial at The New York Post.