You Can Change the World !

In my Catholic high school of the early 1950s, one of the nuns recommended that I read a book by Fr. James Keller, You Can Change the World. The original book sold half a million copies and told stories about individual Catholic men and women who had changed the world for the better. I was so enthusiastic about the book that when it came time to give an oral presentation in the classroom, it was very easy.

I became a firm believer that one person can change the way things work out in life, and can affect many others as well. The actions of a single individual can be compared to the butterfly effect. The Butterfly Effect proposes that a butterfly in China can alter weather in the United States. The notion is that very small initial conditions can produce large variations in long term effects.

Many years ago I heard that the Christophers organization had been taken over by very liberal elements in the Church. Now the Christophers are publishing a new version of Fr. Keller's book that has been revised by U.S. Representative, Jerry Costello. Rep. Costello is a Catholic Democrat, whose record shows he votes pro-life almost all the time.

Does Costello introduce new stories about modern-day Catholics? Are they mostly Democrats? Maybe a test of Costello's fairness would be to determine if any new stories contained in the book describe the life of the founder of Domino's Pizza.

Tom Monahan says he intends to die poor, so he has donated millions and millions of dollars for pro-life activities and Catholic philanthropy. He now is spending his money building a Florida campus for Ave Marie University and Law School, which he founded. A new Catholic town (planned for 20,000 residents) is also being built adjacent to the campus and is said to be open to anyone aspiring to live in communion with traditional values. As a conservative Catholic, Monahan has suffered the sting of public rebuke. See his interview with Katie Couric described at Media Matters.