Yesterday in Valparaiso, IN, we held our annual peaceful, prayerful Life Chain protest against abortion. A Mennonite protester asked a Catholic, “What do you think of your Pope coming out pro-abortion?” This is how media-spun papal talk may be perceived at the grassroots level.
Interestingly, our numbers here were way down this year (though they were up slightly in a nearby town). Perhaps someone should survey a sufficient number of yesterday’s Life Chains around the country. If there was a significant decrease, this datum might provide some empirical evidence of the possible negative effect of the Pope’s statements referred to recently by David Brooks and might encourage the Holy Father to be more cautious in the future.