Eight seasons in, and Ben Budia is the first guest to arrive at the Tiny Table by motorcycle, in a tie and a jacket, in 110-degree Texas heat, on the theory that if it is 120 out you simply must go 120 or faster. That is roughly the energy of the whole conversation. Ben is the General Agent for the Knights of Columbus in Texas, which means 24 agents and about 30,000 families under his care, but the path to that chair is not the one you would guess. He was born in Spain, left at 19, started a telecom company, sold his share, and spent the next 18 years in Asia. He went to Japan chasing martial arts and ended up training with the national fighting team, which he cheerfully describes as the cherry on top rather than the main point: his conversion. He tells Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein about watching the same handful of Japanese Catholics show up to daily Mass at the cathedral in a country where the faith is a rounding error, and how once a Japanese person becomes Catholic, they simply do not stop. Ben was inspired, and it clearly rewired him.

The other thread is Father Michael McGivney. In 1882, the risky jobs went to Catholics, leaving widows in New Haven to prove to a judge they could support their children or watch those children get placed in what amounted to a sweatshop. A young priest gathered the men he trusted in a church basement and built a promise. McGivney gave away every winter coat he was given to the first homeless man he passed, caught tuberculosis, and died young with around 6,000 members on the books. Today, Knights of Columbus has over two million members and $129 billion of insurance in force.
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