Archbishop Salvator Joseph Cordileone
Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
The faithful are expressing their outrage this morning after learning that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a long-time advocate of abortion and same-sex marriage, has written a letter to San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone asking him not to attend the upcoming March for Marriage in Washington, DC.
Breitbart is reporting that, according to Pelosi, the upcoming March is “venom masquerading as virtue” and asked the Archbishop not to attend.
“We share our love of the Catholic faith and our city of San Francisco,” she said in the letter, adding that some participants in the event have displayed “disdain and hate towards LGBT persons.”
She also told Cordileone that “While we may disagree on the subject of marriage equality, we do agree that every person is a child of God, possessed of the spark of divinity and worthy of respect.”
She added the widely misconstrued words of Pope Francis who said, “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?” as a reason why the Archbishop should reconsider attending the March.
Archbishop Cordileone, who heads the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is scheduled to speak at the event, which is being hosted by the National Organization for Marriage. It is expected to draw thousands to a planned March on the Supreme Court this Thursday, June 19, and even more to the “virtual March”.
The Archbishop is certainly not planning to take the advice of the errant former Speaker of the House whose blatant disregard for Church teaching has caused her to run afoul of several bishops.
She also received a private scolding from Pope Benedict XVI who took her aside during a 2009 visit and reprimanded her for her position on abortion.
“His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law,” a Vatican statement read shortly after the visit, “and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
Apparently, she hasn’t learned her lesson and is now aligning herself with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and many other religious leaders from San Francisco in urging Cordileone not to attend the march.
In addition, an online 20,000 people have signed an online petition hosted by Faithful America demanding that eh Archbishop cancel his appearance.
This is not at all likely to happen, seeing as Cordileone is a long-time champion of traditional marriage. He was a leader in the successful campaign for Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage. It was later overturned by judicial fiat.
Cordileone is calling the March for Marriage “an important means to promote and defend marriage for the good of our culture, to pray for our federal and state governments, and to stand in solidarity with people of good will.”
In a letter defending the event, he said: “This is a critical time for marriage in our country, as marriage amendments are being struck down by federal courts and appeals of these decisions are being made.”
Click here for more information on the March.
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