Freedom to Save the Body (of Christ): False Wisdom, True Wisdom, and the Rhetorical Chemotherapy of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone

In January 2022, the archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, participated in the Walk for Life West Coast, a pro-life rally in San Francisco. Cordileone’s homily encouraged attendees to continue in their protest of abortion, which, he argued, was motivated by knowledge of the true, heavenly wisdom from above. The rally occurred a few months following a published epistle on abortion in which the archbishop reasons with members of his diocese using casuistry, or practical reasoning. At the rally, however, the archbishop’s rhetoric shifts completely. Whereas the epistle exhorts adherents of their public responsibility to oppose abortion, the WLWC homily employs prophetic rhetoric even comparing abortion to the pagan child-sacrifices of the Old Testament. Casuistic and prophetic rhetoric, Cathleen Kaveny argues, are two organic forms of discourse within Catholicism, especially when internal negotiations on moral issues like abortion occur. In this article, I argue that whereas Cordileone’s early discourse displays patient casuistic rhetoric with members of his diocese, he, ultimately, transitions to the prophetic voice in his WLWC homily because of Catholic pro-choice adherents with political standing and influence like the then Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Acting in the lineage of the prophets, Cordileone uses a rhetorical chemotherapy to save the body of Christ and uphold the culture of life.