[Jeff Chandler]

it has a prosperous future ahead of it as an independent church.

Or so they think. Look at the pitiful plight of mainstream protestant churches.

If there is no substance to your faith, you might as well go fishing on Sunday instead of to Mass (I do both!) .

[Loyalist]

The liberal mainline Protestants have boiled their membership down to a sympathetic core which will stand by them, through thick and thin.

But even if they didn't, a newly-independent American Catholic Church could bring a new vitality to liberal Christianity in the way that new movements, fresh with optimism and enthusiasm, generally do.

It would be starting with at least as many adherents as the liberal Protestant demoninations put combined, thousands of clerics, a network of educational institutions, a lot of real estate and a fair amount of cash.

Don't underestimate the spirit and commitment that marks many a new enterprise. It could see the new AmChurch through a lot of difficulties.