Why hasn't this already happened?

**UPDATE** It comes to my attention that Bishop Yanta was this very day replaced as the bishop of Amarillo by San Antonio's own Bishop Zurek (the auxiliary bishop), whom I have actually met and like very much. The change over, I'm sure, won't happen until after the 22nd.

I was going to stop shirking responsibility, I swear, but I happened to check my news feeds before trotting off to be productive and came across this story. A snippet:

AMARILLO, Texas(LifeSiteNews.com)- A Catholic bishop has declared his diocese will observe the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion in the United States, as a day of penance for Catholics.

Bishop John W. Yanta of the diocese of Amarillo said that Tuesday January 22 will be observed in his diocese as a "Day of Fast and Abstinence."

The bishop said that day is a particular day of penance in the United States for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life.

"I encourage all the people of God to attend Mass that day, pray before the Blessed Sacrament, pray the rosary and witness to life," Bishop Yanta wrote.

The thought of something like this happening had never occurred to me before, even though I have heard of individuals doing similar things on their own, but it seems an obvious step now that it's been done. I confess to a little trepidation about making it an obligatory day of fast and abstinence, which to my understanding means that residents of the diocese will be in need of confession if they don't participate, but I haven't really thought this out yet.