Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, Calif., the U.S. bishops’ leader on defense of marriage issues, has been named by Pope Benedict XVI as the ninth archbishop of San Francisco.
“I am pleased to welcome Archbishop-elect Cordileone and to assure him of our prayers, loyalty, support and cooperation, as well as our friendship and affection,” said Archbishop George Niederauer, who offered his resignation as archbishop of San Francisco upon reaching the age limit of 75.
The appointment and resignation were both announced on July 27 in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Known for his staunch defense of marriage as well as his intercultural ministry and work with immigrants in California, Archbishop Cordileone will shepherd a diocese that contains about 1.8 million people, about 25% of whom are Catholic.
He has served on the Task Force on Cultural Diversity for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and is the current chairman of the conference’s Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.
In addition, he serves on the Religious Liberty Committee of the California Catholic Conference.
In a June interview, the archbishop-elect told EWTN News that a redefinition of marriage to include homosexual couples would be bad for children, detrimental to society and dangerous for religious freedom.He explained that “out of justice for children, we need to do the best that we can to help them grow up with their mother and their father, married to each other in a stable relationship.” (Source)
Of course it is just totally random that the Pope has selected a bishop knows for his support of marriage and support California Proposition 8 to San Francisco. Yeah totally random.
Looking over at the headlines related to this story I am rather surprised how tame they are. I expected the ubiquitous “crackdown” to be used at least once. Having been rather disappointed at the leadership of bishops in this diocese in the past this is certainly welcome news. Pastoral practice in San Francisco (as in many places) had come to mean – ignore it and hopes it goes away. I know one thing, many at Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco will not exactly be breaking out the bubbly in celebration of this appointment.
Being that Archbishop Cordileone is 56 he will probably be there for the long haul. He certainly has his work cut out for him. Though really this is true of any bishop in charge of the care of souls and especially those bishop who don’t want to be fitted for a millstone for headgear at judgement. Also like all our bishops we need to be supporting him in prayer as he will be meeting a lot of opposition both from within the diocese and without. No doubt he will get along swimmingly with the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors who issued a statement that would have made No-Nothings proud in its anti-Catholic rhetoric.
Now us oh-so-faithful Catholic bloggers who always know what is best are certainly lining up things for Archbishop Cordileone to do once he is installed on the Feast of St. Francis. For one we imagine that phone call to Rep. Nancy “My faith is very important to me” Pelosi. No doubt Ms. Pelosi being such a fine Patristic scholar they will have much to talk about. Though thinking of all the things the Archbishop needs to do reminds me of the wisdom of God in not making me a Bishop.
Regardless I can already hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth at the National Catholic Reporter and similar dissident rags.
2 comments
Heh. I clicked over to the Nasty Critical Rag site to read the comments. Apparently, someone urged faithful Catholics to comment on their story. . .the combox is full of high praise for the Holy Father!
Fr. Philip Neri, OP
Our bishops need prayers always for their task in this age is great, but I will pray for him particularly.
If he begins to bring the faithful into true orthodoxy, I can imagine that his enemies will use his name, so close to to Corleone, to make lots of Godfather jokes.