More Than 100 San Francisco Leaders Sign Open Letter to Pope Seeking the Removal of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone

By Deborah Hastings
New York Daily News
April 16, 2015

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/bay-area-leaders-sign-open-letter-pope-axe-archbishop-article-1.2187738

San Francisco Arhbishop Salvatore Cordileone is seen here in 2012 addressing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and calling for a ban on same-sex marriages.

Scores of Catholic leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area have signed an open letter to Pope Francis calling for the removal of controversial Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who calls homosexual relations "gravely evil."

In a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, more than 100 donors and church members asked the pontiff to replace Cordileone for encouraging "an atmosphere of division and intolerance."

The signers included Brian Cahill, retired executive director of Catholic Charities, Tom Brady Sr., father of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and Adobe Systems chairman Charles Geschke.

The petitioners' complaints include: the appointment of a parish pastor who banned altar girls from church services; an elementary school pamphlet that asked children if they masturbated or engaged in sodomy, and a hardline stance by the archbishop against same-sex marriage and same-sex relationships.

San Francisco has a powerful and influential gay community. Many Roman Catholic congregants there have opposed Cordileone since his appointment by Pope Francis in 2012. Cordileone was the bishop of Oakland at the time.

He was arrested that year on suspicion of drunken driving, but later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving.

In 2008, he organized religious leaders and helped raise money to get Proposition 8 on the ballot in California. The initiative banned same-sex marriage and was later declared unconstitutional.

Cordileone "is just causing a lot of discord, especially with young people in the diocese," construction executive Larry Nibbi told the paper.

"The crux of our worry is that the faithful are going to become very disenchanted and stop going to church because they don't like the message," he said. "And the message is not the way they lead their lives."

The archdiocese criticized the letter as misrepresenting the archbishop's teachings and said its signers do not speak for the Catholic community of San Francisco.