As one of the authors of California's same-sex marriage ban, San Francisco's newly appointed Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is hardly a friend of the LGBT community.
But after the release of his statement on the same-sex marriage victories in Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota on Tuesday, anyone wondering if he could possibly alienate himself from the gay community further learned that the answer is, sadly, yes.
On Wednesday, Cordileone released the following statement on the Archdiocese website:
November 6, was a disappointing day for marriage, as the effort to preserve the unique meaning of marriage in the law lost by only a narrow margin in four states, even though vastly outspent by those who promote the redefinition of marriage.
The meaning of marriage, though, cannot be redefined because it lies within our very nature. No matter what policy, law or judicial decision is put into place, marriage is the only institution that unites a man and a woman to each other and to any children born of their union. It is either this, or it is nothing at all. In view of the fact that every child has a mother and a father, our society either respects the basic right of every child to be raised by his or her mother and father together and so supports the true and unique meaning of marriage for the good of children, or it does not. In a society marked by increasing poverty and family fragmentation, marriage needs to be strengthened, promoted, and defended, not redefined. I hope and pray that political leaders, judges, and all people will seek to honor this foundational and common sense truth of marriage.
The San Francisco blogosphere quickly replied.
"He issued a statement today," wrote Jay Barmann of SFist. "Read it and try to understand how this guy is going to keep living here."
Barmann also pointed to the Archbishop's recent DUI arrest, writing, "maybe we should be talking about the 'common sense truth' about drinking and driving."
Cordileone first made headlines in 2008 when he helped draft and finance Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage. At the time, he called gay marriage a "plot by the Evil One" to destroy marriage in the modern world.
Cordileone's appointment as Archbishop of San Francisco--a city with a long history of LGBT activism--was widely protested when it was announced in July. Later, dozens of gay rights activists gathered outside St. Mary's Cathedral at Cordileone's appointment ceremony in October.
State assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who is gay, expressed his disappointment to the San Francisco Chronicle. "This isn't a match made in heaven."