Cordileone and Pelosi clash over marriage march

At the march for Marriage rally in Washington DC last Thursday, the Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, delivered a pro-marriage speech defying calls for him to not participate from the Catholic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and pro-gay groups.

“Every child comes from a man and a woman, and has a right, a natural human right, to know and be known by, to love and be loved by, their own mother and father. This is the great public good that marriage is oriented towards and protects,” Archbishop Cordileone said. Ms Pelosi and pro-gay groups urged the archbishop last week not to attend the march, sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage and supported by several pro-traditional-marriage groups, claiming that some of the ­participants show “disdain and hate towards LGBT?[lesbian, gay, ­bisexual and transgender] persons”.

“We share our love of the Catholic faith and our city of San Francisco,” Ms Pelosi wrote to Archbishop Cordileone in a letter obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, before going on to describe the march as “venom masquerading as virtue”.

Archbishop Cordileone, who is chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said in his address: “The ultimate attack of the Evil One is the attack on marriage.

“There are people on the other side of this debate who are of good will,” he said, but “to deliberately deprive a child of knowing and being loved by his or her mother and father is an outright injustice.”

Meanwhile, four chairmen of different USCCB committees, including Archbishop Cordileone, issued a statement expressing their concern about President Barack Obama’s announced intention to bar corporations that contract with the federal Government from discriminating against gays and lesbians.

“The enduring commitment of the USCCB to uphold the dignity of each and every human person impels us to oppose unjust discrimination, to proclaim the truth about marriage, and to protect religious freedom,” the bishops stated. “Therefore, we view with great concern the reported intention of the President of the United States to issue an executive order forbidding what the administration considers ‘discrimination’ based on ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ …  We intend to review the details of the executive order carefully once it is available, in order to assess whether it serves the dignity of the human person and the common good.”