8 How the Church Has Changed the World But she has also always wanted to get the time right. And here we run into difficulties. When a baby boy was born to Augustine and Mary Washington on the shores of the Potomac River, they recorded his birthday as February 11, 1731. Many of us are familiar with the phenomenon of “losing” an hour or two as we travel by air from west to east, but that was nothing like what George Washington lost. For he was later to affirm, correctly, that he was born on February 22, 1732, giving Americans the date for the celebration of his birthday, and prompting the striking of the Washington quarter dollar in 1932, the year of its bicentennial. What happened? Were his parents so far behind the times? It’s one thing to be off by a day or two. But eleven? And a whole year? A small error in the beginning We turn then to Rome. The year is 1580, and a tireless old bulldog of a man, Gregory XIII, has succeeded Pope Saint Pius V to the Chair of Peter. Gregory founded or expanded about three hundred schools and universities. He appointed men like Saint Charles Borromeo to undertake a thorough reform of Catholic seminaries. He sent missionaries to all parts of the world, receiving emissaries from Japan to thank him for sowing the faith there. He founded the English college
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