Support Archbishop Cordileone

Support Archbishop Cordileone

Faithful bishops around the country are concerned by the examples some teachers in their diocesan Catholic schools present to children in their care. Certainly it would be best if the teachers were all faithful Catholics. However, dissident Catholics and non-Catholics are also offered positions provided they do not lead students astray by words or actions contrary to Christ.

Therefore, teachers are increasingly asked to sign very basic morality clauses in their contracts promising that their public conduct will not openly oppose the teaching of the Church. This is not a free speech issue any more than a business asking their salesmen not to promote products of competitors or politicians refusing to hire campaign workers who promote opposing ideology. Moreover, even the supreme court has ruled in favor of religious schools (see the unanimous Hosanna-Tabor decision) in support of such obvious and reasonable requirements.

San Francisco Archbishop Cordileone is an honorable, holy and faithful shepherd assigned to a formidably difficult archdiocese. He is the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage and is in no way any kind of “extremist.” Opposition to a very basic morality clause is fierce and mobilized in a political style backed by large sums of money, a high-power PR firm, an aggressively hostile city council and strongly biased media. Everything is against him except the truth.

In this lion’s den Archbishop Cordileone needs our prayers and our support. Please consider joining me and 34,000+ other fair-minded individuals in signing the petition sponsored by American Life League and Life Site News. Sign the petition HERE. Ask your friends to do likewise. More information is available at that link or feel free to contact me.

It reads:

To: The San Francisco City Council, San Francisco Catholic school board, teachers, and administrators

We, the undersigned, wish to express our strong support for Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s courageous, commonsense, and fatherly efforts to strengthen the Catholic identity of the Catholic schools in the San Francisco archdiocese.

We categorically condemn the distortions and attacks against these efforts, and the archbishop personally, spearheaded by those who seem neither to understand the basics of Catholic teaching, nor the importance of religious liberty in the health of our society.

We demand that these shameful attacks against the archbishop’s efforts to protect the Catholic identity of Catholic schools immediately cease.

We pray as well that Catholic teachers and administrators in the schools will use this controversy as an opportunity to deepen their personal commitment, as exemplified by how they live their personal lives, to Catholic teaching and to providing an authentically Catholic education to their students.

Finally, we offer our heartfelt prayers for Archbishop Cordileone and wish to express our deep gratitude for his personal courage and charity in the face of these unjust public attacks.

Sincerely,
[Your name]

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