When George Wirz, the retired auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Madison, died last week at age 81, his passing got only brief notice in the local news.
He had been retired for six years, after all, and even before that, he had a pretty low profile in the public arena. An auxiliary bishop is essentially a helper to the main bishop. And Wirz was not given to plunging into the public debates that tend to get one’s name in the headlines. Yet his impact on Catholics in the southwestern Wisconsin area that comprises the 11-county Madison Diocese was profound in the 58 years he served as a priest and bishop.