There is a crisis affecting our young men, which has been publicly demonstrated over the past 6 months.

Tyler James Robinson, the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk; Thomas Matthew Crooks, the slain shooter of President Donald Trump; and recently Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzel, the former Catholic high school student from Montclair, New Jersey, who was charged by federal agents on Nov.7 for allegedly participating in a terror cell and plotting antisemitic attacks, are just the latest examples of this highly unusal phenomenon.

The tragic tales of Robinson, Crooks, and Jimenez-Guzel are not mere footnotes in the history of crime; they are harrowing examples of a spiritual famine afflicting an entire generation.

These young Christian men were between 19 and 22 at the time of their actions. 

These sons, adrift in the vast digital “dark corners” of forums like Discord chats, Reddit, and Twitch were lured into their extreme ideologies that often mock the words and acts of Jesus Christ. 

As a Church, we cannot stand by silently. We must proclaim: This is not the will of God. It is the devil’s counterfeit, and it demands our vigilant, compassionate response.

In our parishes and in daily family life, we Catholics have long proclaimed the Gospel as a beacon against despair.

Yet, as November’s chill settles over us, a deeper frost grips the souls of our young men — a radicalization that twists noble hearts into instruments of violence. 

Consider these young lives, each a microcosm of the wounds Christ came to heal.

Robinson, once a boy from a Mormon home in Utah, veered into leftist fury, allegedly assassinating a conservative voice with bullets etched with anti-fascist scorn.

Crooks, the solitary high-achiever from Pennsylvania, turned a rally into a bloodbath, his rage born in isolation.

Jimenez-Guzel, from a privileged New Jersey town, plotted jihadist horrors against the innocent; his encrypted boasts revealing a hunger for infamy that ISIS propaganda feasted upon. 

These young men are not monsters born of malice alone; they were led astray by the “false teachers” mentioned in Scripture — ensnared in online rabbit holes where algorithms peddle poison as purpose.

We must ask for St. Michael’s intercession against the digital demons that seem to unravel these tangled souls. 

In this Jubilee Year of Hope we must listen to the cries of young people and give their voices room in the Church.

For in Christ we find the true root of freedom.