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"Who's going to be left in church?"

It is true that many self identified Catholics tell pollsters that they support abortion rights. I suspect, however, that few of these "Catholics" are filling pews on Sunday or dropping meaningful contributions in the collection basket. (While something like 50% of "Catholics" tell pollsters the foregoing, only 33% of Catholics satisfy their Sunday obligation). If more bishops behaved like the admirable Wiegand you might see attendance drop a bit at Easter and Christmas, but I would make book that no detectable change would occur the balance of the year. Indeed, attendance and contributions might rise as dispirited traditionalists are re-energized.

God bless you Bishop Wiegand. May more follow your lead.

Right you are. At my parish, our pro-life group, with the pastor's permission, installed a sign to let mother's who may considering abortion to call a certain number where they could get help. There was one woman who was offended by the sign. She happened to be on the school board and parked her car in front of the sign to drop her kids off at school. She made a big ruckus but the pastor put his foot down and said the sign would stay. We were told a year later that our sign brought in more calls to the center than any of the other signs placed at other parishes throughout the diocease.

So, pastors too can have a positive effect for life.