Camus to the Dominicans

“When I think about the Church’s social teaching,  I love to recall some words that Albert Camus ... addressed to a group of Dominicans who invited him to come and speak to them at the end of the Second World War.  Camus said he would discuss the problem of evil in life, as he understood it as an agnostic.  He closed his talk, as I recall the story, with this thought:  ‘It may not be possible for us to create a world in which no innocent children suffer, but it is possible to create a world in which fewer innocent children suffer.  If we try to do that, if we look to the Christians and do not find help, where else will we go?’”  --Bryan Hehir, "Wanted:  A New Global Order," The Tablet, Dec. 1, 2001, at 1700, 1702.