Don’t Let S.F. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s Charm Fool You

By C.W. Nevius
San Francisco Chronicle
February 25, 2015

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Don-t-let-S-F-Archbishop-Salvatore-6101927.php

S.F. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone ponders a question as he meets with The Chronicle’s editorial board. He says one change he is making to the morality code is to drop the designation of the teachers as “ministers.”

This week, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone met with The Chronicle’s editorial board. He’s charming, humorous and engaging.

He’s also dead wrong.

The controversy stems from his proposed changes in the collective bargaining agreement with teachers in archdiocese high schools that would designate them as “ministers.” In addition, “clarifications” to school handbooks would emphasize that employees would have to follow the teachings of the church, leading some parents and teachers to call the additions morality clauses because they involve things like same-sex relationships and abortion.

Cordileone may have reconciled his personal beliefs — saying he would allow gay students at archdiocese schools but adamantly opposes the right of same-sex couples to marry — but many of the rest of us are still shaking our heads.

Cordileone made every effort to minimize the controversy, but his explanations were difficult to follow at best.

Take his statement: “To call an act gravely evil does not mean that the person who does the act is an evil person.”

That may be clear to him, but I don’t get it. Among the “evil” activities he’s talking about are homosexuality, same-sex marriage and even in-vitro fertilization. It’s the kind of chilling distinction that puts everyone on edge.