Change the world

This morning I drove to a Catholic school in the rural Central Texas to talk to third, fourth and fifth graders about the possibility of becoming of a priest or entering religious life. I talked about my background and how when I was their age I never once thought about becoming a priest.

At one point in the talk one of the fourth graders raised his hand and asked me: "What are you gonna do if you become the pope? Are you gonna try to change the world and be like John Paul II?"

I kind of chuckled. In response I said:

Well, I do not think that I am going to become the pope. But if I did then sure I would try to change the world and be like John Paul II. But it's important to remember that, you don't have to be the pope to change the world. All of you here in this room can change the world just by growing up and getting married and raising four or five or however many good kids. You can change the world just by being a priest or by being a sister like Mother Teresa, and serving people that way. That's how I wanta change the world, is by encouraging the people that I serve to be saints, which just means imitating Christ and spreading his love around. If you can be a saint, then you guys can change the world.