San Francisco's New Archbishop Arrested on Suspicion of Drunken Driving

By Salvatore Cordileone
Vatican Insider
August 28, 2012

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Salvatore Cordileone, has admitted his blood-alcohol level was above the legal limit when police arrested him, and has publicly apologized for "the disgrace" he has brought on the Church.

The Archbishop-elect of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, was jailed for 11 hours last Saturday, August 25, on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink, after failing a sobriety test administered by the police who stopped him.

In a statement issued by his diocese, Cordileone, a native of San Diego and currently bishop of Oakland, acknowledged that his blood-alcohol level was found to be over the legal limit. He apologized for his "error in judgment", and said he felt "shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself."

He explained that he had dined earlier that evening with friends and another priest and was driving his mother home from the gathering when he was arrested.

"I will repay my debt to society, and I ask forgiveness from my family and my friends and co-workers at the Diocese of Oakland and the Archdiocese of San Francisco", he said in the statement. "I pray that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this", he added.

A spokesman for the police, Detective Gary Hassen, was quoted by the san Francisco Examiner as saying that the bishop was jailed on suspicion of driving under the influence (of alcohol) after he was stopped at a police checkpoint and failed a field sobriety test. The bishop was released on $2,500 bail, about 11 hours after his arrest, he added. He has been ordered to appear in court to answer the charge on October 9.

Five days before he appears in court, he is scheduled to be installed as archbishop of San Francisco during a solemn mass in the city's Cathedral. But many now wonder whether the ceremony will now take place on October 4. Some in the US Bishops Conference say privately that they think the bishop's ministry has been badly compromised as a result of the drunken driving charge and that he may have to resign, particularly if convicted, as a result of what has happened.

On 27 July, Pope Benedict appointed Cordileone as archbishop of San Francisco archdiocese which has a Catholic population of some 500,000 Catholics. After studying in San Diego, Cordileone gained his degree in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in1981.

On his return home, he worked in the San Diego diocese for many years but in 1995 he was called back to Rome to work in the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal of Justice. Seven years later, in 2002, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of San Diego and, in 2009, bishop of Oakland. He is one among the new batch of leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States who have been chosen for their affirmative orthodoxy and traditionalist theological positions.

As Chairman of the sub-committee of the US Catholic Bishops Conference for the Promotion and Defence of Marriage, he has been a firm opponent of gay-marriage and threw the Church's weight behind Proposition 8 – the voter approved California state ban on same-sex marriage, Many believe this was among the key factors in the pope's decision to appoint him as archbishop of San Francisco.