A well-funded campaign to ruin San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and drive him out of the city is being met with increasing resistance from the faithful who are rallying around him and trying to raise the funds he needs to defend himself.

The Archbishop first came under attack in February when he proposed new morals clauses in teacher contracts. The clauses would require teachers to “arrange and conduct their lives so as not to visibly contradict, undermine or deny” church teachings, such as its opposition to abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage.

Faculty would be required to refrain from publicly supporting “any cause or issue that is explicitly or implicitly contrary to that which the Catholic Church holds to be true . . .”

Some Catholic school teachers banded together and joined with powerful forces within the city of San Francisco as well as media maven Sam Singer who openly admitted he had been hired to defeat the Archbishop’s policies. Since that time, there have been a variety of staged rallies which received vast media attention as well as an ad published in the San Francisco Chronicle which called upon Pope Francis to remove Cordileone from his position – all because he is insisting upon keeping Catholic schools Catholic.

As a result, Catholic organizations around the country are rallying to the aid of the Archbishop.

According to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an independent grassroots group of Catholic faithful in the Archdiocese of San Francisco known as SFCatholics.org is organizing a family picnic and wants to publish a statement of support for the Archbishop. However, these ads cost large sums of money and the group launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise $40,000 before May 16. Thus far, the group has raised close to $10,000  but is still in need of more donations.

Brian Burch of CatholicVote.org has also launched a fund-raising program to help the Archbishop cover the costs of defending himself against a massive media campaign orchestrated by Singer who now claims he won’t rest until Cordileone is gone.

In addition, a number of hostile teachers in the Archdiocesan Catholic schools are planning to launch law suits against the Archbishop.

“If they succeed, the continued independence of every Catholic school in America could be at risk,” Burch writes. “It’s time for the ‘people in the pews’ to rise up. We can’t sit on our hands and watch this happen.”

Burch contacted Cordileone’s attorney and offered to do whatever is necessary to help support the Archbishop.

“He assured me that the Archbishop would be grateful for any help we can provide, especially our prayers,” Burch writes.

He set up the “Archbishop Cordileone Defense Fund” which is raising money to help defray the costs of defending the Archbishop against his well-heeled adversaries.

“All collected proceeds will be given to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, for the express purpose of assisting the Archbishop with public relations, legal fees and any other costs directly associated with his efforts,” Burch explains.

Even more important is our continued prayers for this courageous prelate who is refusing to back down and compromise the Gospel to which he has devoted his life.

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