In a world filled with hate, suffering and distrust, it's sometimes hard to remember that people can make a difference.

I have a hero. He is the only individual living in today's world, besides Mother Teresa, who I thought would become a saint. That all changed in the last three months.

My hero didn't originally have high ideals to save humanity. His story begins in 1968, when he gave a sermon at Manhattan College about dedication and commitment.

One of the students challenged him to practice what he preached. So he moved to the lower East Side of Manhattan to work with the poor.

On a cold and windy night in February 1969, Father Bruce Ritter heard a knock on his apartment door.

Six kids, all under 16 and half-frozen from the cold, asked if they could sleep on his floor. They were fleeing from some junkies/pimps who had forced them to make a porn film in exchange for food. They had nowhere else to go.

The next day four more showed up.

And then another two.

And then two more.

Father Ritter called 24 child-care agencies. None of them would take these kids. Either they were too young or too old. Or they were too sick or not sick enough.

One child-care official actually told him that housing these children was breaking the law and arresting them was the only way to get them off the streets.

Father Ritter couldn't do that. He already thought of these youths as his own. Nobody else even wanted to admit they existed.

The kids kept coming and soon Father Ritter's rule was that nobody would be turned away from his doors.

Needing more room, he took over apartments in his tenement. As he put it, "The entire operation was illegal, unofficial, uncharted and unfunded."

This was the beginning of Covenant House.

In October 1972, the Covenant House became a licensed non-profit organization specializing in the care of runaways and street kids. Today Covenant House has 17 shelters in the United States, Canada and Latin America. The agency has helped more than 200,000 kids.

Only 6 percent of the Covenant House's funds come from government agencies. The rest of its $87 million budget is composed of private donations summoned mostly by Father Ritter's letter writing.

Over 800,000 newsletters are sent out each month. Father Ritter writes about the kids who might make it. More often he writes about the ones who won't. The ones who can't cry anymore because they have been hardened by the streets. He estimates that only one-third of the children he shelters make it.

But in the past three months allegations against Father Ritter have overshadowed the purpose of Covenant House. Last December, 26-year-old Kevin Kite, a former prostitute and Covenant House resident, said he had received gifts from Ritter in exchange for sexual favors.

The headlines of all the major New York papers screamed of the alleged wrongdoing. Then, two other men declared they also had sexual encounters with Ritter.

Some unorthodox procedures involving a trust fund were not exposed; Ritter did not file annual reports with the Internal Revenue Service.

The allegations and financial investigations forced Father Ritter to resign from Covenant House. Some people said his resignation showed his guilt.

In three months, a man who dedicated the past 21 years of his life to helping street kids has been destroyed by a young drifter whose own father describes him as a chronic liar.

The trust fund in question primarily consisted of Ritter's donations from his own salary. Even though it was Ritter's own money, he has been criticized for giving loans to his sister, two board members and a truck driver formerly from Covenant House who needed money to save his truck from repossession.

If Father Ritter had always played by the rules, Covenant House would never have become a reality. If he gave up every time circumstances were difficult, the program would not be what it is today.

Thousands of kids wouldn't have a safe place to sleep at night or food in their bellies. Thousands of young people would never know that somebody cares for them -- unconditionally.

Many people are forgetting the purpose of Covenant House. Donations for December were three million dollars short of the $15 million expectations.

Father Ritter has accomplished more good in his life than many of us ever will. Covenant House has evolved from a small, unofficial organization into a legitimate agency staffed with hardworking, dedicated professionals.

The New York Times ran an editorial last week saying it may be too late to save Covenant House. But the choice isn't in "new fresh leadership in the board and in a new administrator," as they suggested. The choice is in continual public support and faith.

I believe the choice is ours.