Young adults have a real desire to find the truth and struggle with it

• 75% of college students say they are to "some" or to a "great extent" "searching for meaning/purpose in life"
• by their third year, college students report that 68% are "feeling unsettled about spiritual and religious matters" and least "to some extent."
• 76% of the third year students have "struggled to understand evil, suffering, and death" at least occasionally" (and 21% have frequently had to struggle)

(Source:  HERI study)

…but are being lost along the way:

• "Same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status":  55% of entering Catholic freshman agreed with the statement, increasing to 71% by their senior year
• "Abortion should be legal": 45% of entering Catholic freshman agreed with this, increasing to 57% by senior year
• "If two people really like each other, it's all right for them to have sex even if they've known each other for only a very short time": 30% of entering Catholic college freshman agreed with this, increasing to 49% by senior year
• "Have attended a religious service" during the past year: by senior year at 13% of Catholics had stopped and nearly one half only attended occasionally.  At nine Catholic colleges, 56.4% of Catholics attended "frequently" in their freshman year, decreasing to 22.1% in their senior year; those attending "not at all" had increased from 6.5% in freshman year to 27.8% in senior year.

(Source: HERI study results, comparing changes in students who entered college in 1997 as freshmen and their attitudes in 2001 as seniors.)