The Cordileone Case and the U.S. Elections

By Andrea Tornielli
Vatican Insider
August 29, 2012

vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/cordileone-dolan-stati-uniti-us-estados-unidos-vescovi-bishops-obispos-17729/

Towards the U.S. presidential elections

Now that everyone is vying to win over Catholic voters, the consequences faced by the newly appointed archbishop of San Francisco for his recent involvement in a drink driving incident, may not be so severe

It is still too early to tell whether the new archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone's run in with the police last Friday night will have any consequences for his upcoming mission and what these may be. The archbishop was stopped near the San Diego campus and found to have a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit in California.

The prelate - a representative of the American Episcopal conference's new conservative guard who was promoted to the position of Archbishop of San Francisco last 27 July after just three years as leader of the Diocese of Oakland and a standard-bearer in the battle against same-sex marriage – was apparently accompanying his 80 year old mother home after a meal at a friend's house.

Cordileone apologised and said he felt "shame for the disgrace" he brought upon the church and himself, adding that he wanted to repay his "debt to society." He is due to start his work in the new diocese on 4 October. Five days later, the archbishop who spent nine hours in a county prison cell and was released on bail, will be required to appear in court.

American public opinion is particularly sensitive to offenses committed by individuals who have been assigned public roles. According to statements given by a police officer who stopped the newly elected archbishop of San Francisco (and another ten people who were caught drink driving), Cordileone was "a driver that was obviously impaired" but not a "belligerant drunk." He was polite to police officers, did not cause any problems and issued a statement admitting responsibility for his state.

But the incident comes at a delicate time, just as the prelate is about to begin his role in the new diocese. This, together with certain controversies in the media regarding his position on same-sex marriage show a carelessness which has given rise to whispers among American bishops about a potential resignation.

This speculation, which has been discarded by a number of commentators like David Gibson, who in an article in the Washington Post recalled that "in the past other bishops have been caught drunk driving but they only resigned if the incident involved another crime, like leaving the scene of an accident, or if it indicated a deeper problem like alcoholism."

The Jesuit Thomas Reese tried to defend the archbishop and down play the incident, by recalling Cordileone's ten years as bishop of Oakland and auxiliary bishop in San Diego, stressing that the prelate was not a crazy alcoholic. He concluded by saying that there is no real need for Cordileone to resign and suggested that the archbishop speak to his faithful. The incident could make him look more human in the eyes of others, he said.

The prelate gave a prompt apology and for now it seems efforts are being made to throw water on the fire. Nothing has been published about the incident on the homepages of the Dioceses of Oakland and San Francisco.

Although on some blogs and websites certain anonymous commentators have suggested this could be a conspiracy to set a trap for the archbishop in order to take revenge for certain stances he has taken, nothing particularly controversial has been said, despite the fact that the news has been widely reported on by media in the U.S.

The presidential election campaign could work in Cordileone's favour: this would not be the right time to make an enemy of the Church given that it is in the interests of the two big American parties to court Catholics for their votes. This is proven by the "blessings" which the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan has been asked to give at the Republican and Democratic conventions.

The drink driving incident should also raise questions as to the way in which certain ecclesiastical figures and nominations are presented to the public, emphasising the existence of a proven doctrinal orthodoxy and a break with the past. There is sometimes the risk of presenting new bishops as "floggers" whose job it is to "straighten out" dioceses: the greater the insistence on this interpretation, the harsher the reaction of certain groups and in some cases sections of public opinion will be when a bishop commits an offence.