He may not have been Mother Teresa or Saint Paul, but he was a blessing to his family and to the world.

N ew York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan has been getting flak for comparing Charlie Kirk to Saint Paul, but those who are incensed over this may be missing the point.

Dolan admitted that he did not know who Kirk was until Kirk was murdered. And yet he saw the “overwhelming sense of sorrow” and hints of “renewal” in the outpouring of love for Kirk after the evil perpetrated on Utah Valley University’s campus. On Fox & Friends days later, Dolan said, “The more I learned about him, I thought: this guy’s a modern-day Saint Paul. He was a missionary, he’s an evangelist, he’s a hero,” and “he’s one, I think, that knew what Jesus meant when he said the truth will set you free.”

The cardinal acknowledged that Kirk “was pretty blunt, and he was pretty direct” and “didn’t try to avoid controversy” but that it was his “style” that made the difference. He received his opponents “always with respect.” And that’s not only “a gracious, . . . virtuous thing to do; it’s effective,” Dolan said. “When your opponent sees this guy kind of respects me, we kind of disagree here, but he kind of enjoys me and he’s thanking me for being here, and he’s telling me he appreciates the trust I have in him in sharing my views — I thought, ‘This guy can teach us something.’”

And teaching is what the young Charlie Kirk was doing. On college campuses across the country, Kirk would encourage young people to make an argument for their views and tell him why he was wrong. In so many of his videos, you see the same thing: Kirk being not only respectful but encouraging.

“I never, ever want children for myself,” a young woman told him during one of these interactions. “I have severe mental health issues, and I suffer from depression, attempted suicides,” she explained. She admitted that most days she “can’t even get out of bed in the morning,” so the prospect of being responsible for another human’s life “wouldn’t be fair.” She pressed him on abortion — don’t you want women like her to have options? Your heart breaks for this young woman in pain. And so did Kirk’s. He wasn’t as interested in “winning” the debate as he was in letting the woman know that she’s “selling herself short.” He urged her to not “live under the bigotry of low expectations.” He approached her with love and compassion, encouragement, and even humor. They had a lovely exchange. The woman seemed genuinely interested in and grateful for his insights.

How many of us, in our everyday lives, can be totally transactional in our human encounters? Kirk’s fundraising might have gone through the roof if he had simply sought to “own the libs” on college campuses and excoriated students for being incapable of thinking for themselves. Instead, when encountering students, he saw people made in the image and likeness of God who are loved and worthy of respect.

They say that Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, the vernacular at the time, had a temper. Saint Catherine of Siena probably could have afforded to eat more, especially toward the end of her life; Saint Thomas Aquinas, perhaps less. Saints are not necessarily perfect. But they live lives of virtue, which is accessible to all, with God’s grace. And it’s something all Christians are called to. This — holiness as a universal call — is one of the things the Second Vatican Council emphasized.

The life of Saint Paul illustrates the power of transformation. He went from persecuting Christians to being their relentless voice. You don’t have to examine every moment of Kirk’s life to see if he measured up to Paul, post-conversion. Kirk’s presence on campuses was like Paul’s on the Areopagus in Athens. Some would listen and change their lives when he spoke. Others would reject him. He would, in fact, be killed for doing what he did and professing what he professed. Kirk — who wasn’t a Catholic, despite rumors — doesn’t need to be canonized for the similarities to be obvious. And more important, to want the virtue thing he caught to be contagious.

Rather than get caught up in the politics of it all, Dolan focused on the lesson of Kirk’s life: to live well and with self-sacrificial love. Charlie Kirk may not have been Mother Teresa or Saint Paul, but he was Charlie Kirk. And that was a blessing to his family and to the world. May he continue to be so, even now.

This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.