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Nearly 4,000 Catholics came together in San Francisco Sunday afternoon to walk with the Eucharist across the Golden Gate Bridge, taking the first steps on one of four walking pilgrimages across the country this year, part of the USCCB-sponsored Eucharistic revival project.
On my porch last January, I found a bulky, wet, disintegrating brown envelope. As I moved to open it, the paper simply gave way, exposing a messy assortment of books, booklets and old mimeographed pages about the Catholic martyrs of Ukraine. These were sent by Father Andrew Summerson, a Toronto Byzantine Catholic priest, to help me fulfill an unusual commission from San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone: Create the text of a new hymn (with the music composed by Frank La Rocca) honoring the heroic witness of Ukraine’s martyrs and white martyrs.
The Archbishop of San Francisco told The Pillar this week that more needs to be done to mark the witness of heroic Catholics who oppose totalitarian regimes in countries like Nicaragua and China.
From Bach to Mozart, countless musicians have been inspired to write Maggie Gallagher, the Executive Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, discusses the importance of music and liturgy in the life of the Church.
From Bach to Mozart, countless musicians have been inspired to write Requiem Mass settings. On March 15, locals will have the opportunity to attend the world premiere of a new work, Frank La Rocca’s “Requiem for the Forgotten,” a piece originally commissioned by San Francisco’s archbishop.
Witness Samantha Court, a 14-year-old girl who starts John Paul II College Preparatory High School in Houston this fall, who was recently named the winner of the first-ever Benedict XVI Institute Teen Writing Fellowship.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that properly educating Catholics and organizing around critical social issues is the only way for the Catholic Church to make headway back into the modern cultural arena.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote to local prosecutors Wednesday, telling them he is “disturbed but not surprised” at a decision to downgrade the prosecution of five people who desecrated a statue of St. Junipero Serra in 2020.
“Our Catholic sisters devote themselves to serving others selflessly. Decent people would not mock & blaspheme them. So, we now know what gods the Dodger admin worships. Open desecration & anti-Catholicism is not disqualifying,” Cordileone said, adding, “Disappointing but not surprising. Gird your loins.”
This essay effectively draws together the best insights into reality and how it can be portrayed, especially in fiction, so that by the end you will not wish to read (or write) anything that does not deliberately and artfully engage both reality’s immanence and its transcendence. It is not for readers who rarely stray beyond “pop” (such as my beloved mysteries). But for a 63-page manifesto, it is immensely rewarding.
Without downplaying the challenges of this post-Christian, neo-barbaric world, Hren’s work remains one of hope and inspiration. This little volume is a fine offering (conveniently stocking-stuffer-sized!) for the prayerful consideration of writers, readers, and all lovers of the exquisite richness of that which is truly real.
NLM is pleased to offer readers this exclusive interview with Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, in advance of this Saturday’s Lenten prayer service that will feature great music by past masters as well as three newly-commissioned works. Charlotte Allen is literary editor of CatholicArtsToday.com, which is published by the BenedictInstitute.org.
Dr. Alfred Calabrese will conduct the 20-voice Band of Voices Choir in a worship service featuring works of Palestrina, Victoria, and Di Lasso paired with works by living Catholic composers, including three World Premieres commissioned by the Benedict XVI Institute: Popule meus by Daniel Knaggs, Ad te levavi oculos meos by Mark Nowakowski and Timor et tremor by Jeffrey Quick, as well as a performance of Frank La Rocca’s Miserere.
”Miserere: A Lenten Prayer Service” is a production of The Benedict XVI Institute in San Francisco. Archbishop Cordileone will preside over this service from the beautiful Mission Dolores Basilica. To stream this live broadcast, click on the link below and register. Registration is free.
The service features the choir singing eight Latin motets, four from the Renaissance and four from living composers writing in response to the same texts. The four living composers are Daniel Knaggs, Mark Nowakowski, Jeffrey Quick, and Frank La Rocca, the Institute’s Composer in Residence. All but the LaRocca piece will be world premieres.
We need healing. More than a year ago, as we began to emerge from the Covid nightmare, I commissioned a new healing Mass for the World Day of the Sick in honor Our Lady of Lourdes from the Benedict XVI Institute’s composer-in-residence Frank La Rocca.
On Feb. 11 at 11am PST at Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light, we will gather for an extraordinary event: the first celebration of the Messe des Malades: Honoring Our Lady of Lourdes. In addition to featuring, as the Order of Malta does every year on the World Day of the Sick, the sacrament of the anointing of the sick and the blessing of the hands of their caretakers, it will also provide a special display of Catholic unity: the knights and dames of the Order from both sides of the Bay — San Francisco and Oakland — will join together at the cathedral where the Order operates its free medical clinic for the poor, with Bishop Michael Barber as celebrant of the Mass and me as preacher. And in addition to the Order of Malta, the Mass will also bring together the Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulcher, the Knights of Columbus, the Dominican Friarorderofmaltawestern.us/wds-lourdes-water-preps Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, and the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist — all processing together to worship God and ask for healing love for our broken world.
The Oakland Location assembled 800 packets of Lourdes water in preparation for their joint World Day of the Sick Mass with the San Francisco Location.
Lourdes Water, holy cards, and rosaries for our dear Malades…300 to go!
One of our readers, the priest who very kindly commissioned the altar cards in question, recently shared some new works of liturgical art that were produced for the occasion of the celebration of a Pontifical Mass for the feast of St. Juniper Serra — the founder of nine of the twenty one California Spanish Missions — by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at Mission Dolores (Mission San Francisco de Asís) in San Francisco.
Big plans are set for Saturday, February 11, 2023, for the world premiere of a new healing Mass honoring our Lady of Lourdes at The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, CA for Frank La Rocca’s Messe Des Malades. EWTN will also be broadcasting the event live.
Messe Des Malades honors Our Lady of Lourdes and will surround the liturgy participants with a musical arrangement bestowing respite from the world. Guests will be transported to a restorative ambience, one reminiscent to that of an experience in the Grotto of Lourdes, in France. All this is to be performed by the Benedict XVI Choir, 20 world-class singers under the direction of Richard Sparks. Frank La Rocca begins his 4th year as COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE at the Benedict XVI Institute.
More recently, Cordileone said: “Let us, here in San Francisco, lead the way by example. Let us make our Golden Gate an authentic symbol of a city that will let no stranger wait outside its door, and where the wandering one will say, “I’ll wander no more.””
This recording was released in the beginning of July. The choir comes from the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, an organization whose mission follows La Rocca’s own goals of celebrating the faith through performance of the most beautiful sacred songs. They contend that even with Catholicism’s vast catalog of hymns and art songs, “The greatest art, the greatest liturgy the Catholic Church has ever produced is yet to come.”
Two years ago, statues of St. Junípero Serra were desecrated and toppled within the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone did not cower amid the furor. There were shouts to cancel St. Junípero Serra, the 18th-century Franciscan priest and missionary who brought the Gospel to the Native peoples of New Spain’s Alta California. Archbishop Cordileone’s response was to simply draw from the deposit of faith: through prayer, honoring and knowing the faith’s rich tradition and history and, like St. Junípero, to keep moving forward and never turn back.
The Central Valley’s leader of the Catholic Church is publicly backing ‘sanctions’ in support of forbidding Communion to pro-choice parishioners.
Bishop Joseph V. Brennan of the Diocese of Fresno church released a letter on Monday supporting an archbishop’s decision to deny House Speaker Nancy Pelosi her Communion, due to her continuing support of abortion.
“[The archbishop] has taken a lot of heat, in and out of the church, for standing up for what’s right,” Brennan said in the letter.
A government that creates classes of people whom it prefers and classes whom it hates or as to whom it is indifferent should be altered or abolished. The whole business of state-sanctioned killing of innocents is, as San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone called it, unfathomable.
While Bernadette Carstensen began painting as a child and planned to become an illustrator, she had no idea that an intriguing art contest would reroute her into becoming the contemporary sacred artist she is today. She has received major commissions and, recently, her painting St. Joseph, Terror of Demons garnered third place in 2021’s Catholic Art Institute Sacred Art Contest, which drew 300 submissions from countries around the world. Her Patron Saints of the Homeless also placed among the few finalists for the top three prizes.
For two decades, Maggie Gallagher was a leading voice writing about the importance of permanent, monogamous marriage to society. At first, that included pointing out the problems with divorce, feminism and single parenthood. Then as same-sex marriage became the predominant issue, Gallagher became the public face of the movement against it.
A few years after the Supreme Court made gay marriage legal across the 50 states, Gallagher switched gears when Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco asked her to be Executive Director of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, which he founded in 2013. She says that to avoid despair, we have to build beautiful things.
Archbishop Cordileone released this response via Twitter, using language implying the actions of Satan: ‘The attempted desecration is enormous. Diabolical. Mother Mary, pray for them, now and at the hour of death. Amen.’
‘The new secular religion of our own time takes on this practice in an almost sacramental way: indeed, abortion has become, for them, their blessed sacrament, what they hold most sacred, the doctrine and practice upon which their whole belief system is built.’
The San Francisco event is led and largely attended by Catholics; San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was honored at the event and is a regular participant. The Los Angeles event is organized by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez speaks to walkers and participates in the event.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone subsequently tweeted: “The attempted desecration is enormous. Diabolical. Mother Mary, pray for them, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”
“The attempted desecration is enormous. Diabolical,” Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco tweeted. “Mother Mary, pray for them, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone slammed the abortion advocates’ display, calling it “diabolical” and accusing the Catholics for Choice of “attempted desecration.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, one of the leading pro-life leaders in the Catholic Church, referred to the assault as a “desecration,” further branding it as “diabolical.”
En su cuenta de Twitter, Mons. Cordileone ha dicho
El intento de profanación es enorme. Diabólico. Madre María, ruega por ellos, ahora y en la hora de la muerte. Amén.
“The attempted desecration is enormous,” wrote Archbishop Cordileone on Twitter in reaction to the incident. “Diabolical. Mother Mary, pray for them, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”
Z kolei abp Salvatore Cordileone z San Francisco napisał: „Zamierzona profanacja jest ogromna. Diaboliczna. Matko Maryjo, módl się za nimi teraz i w godzinę śmierci. Amen”.
The protest did stoke reaction on social media, however, with San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone quote-tweeting a picture of the protest with the words: “The attempted desecration is enormous. Diabolical. Mother Mary, pray for them, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”
Cordileone, a known conservative among U.S. bishops, has repeatedly suggested denying Communion to Catholic politicians who back abortion rights while invoking the Catholic Church’s longstanding opposition to abortion. The issue became a subject of heated disagreement among bishops as they debated a document on the Eucharist throughout 2021, with some mentioning Biden by name. The final document, approved in November, did not single out politicians.
“El intento de profanación es enorme. Diabólico. Madre María, ruega por ellos, ahora y en la hora de la muerte. Amén”, tuiteó el Arzobispo de San Francisco, Mons. Salvatore Cordileone.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and others might disagree that the protest was conducted “respectfully.”
“The attempted desecration is enormous,” Cordileone said on Twitter. “Diabolical.”
The images were first reported on Twitter at 6:31 p.m. EST by reporter Jack Jenkins of Religious News Service. Widely shared on social media, the images drew some support but also sharp denunciations.
“The attempted desecration is enormous. Diabolical,” Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco tweeted. “Mother Mary, pray for them, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”
“The attempted desecration is enormous. Diabolical,” Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco tweeted. “Mother Mary, pray for them, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”
This year, the Mass was not celebrated according to the Tridentine rite; Instead, it was a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin, and Cordileone presided ad orientem. The musical setting by Frank La Rocca, composer-in-residence at Cordileone’s Benedict XVI Institute, is dedicated to the Blessed Mother under the title Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, and as the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the US.
What is the deepest point of the Mass?
For well-catechized Catholics the answer is clear: In every Mass, Jesus Christ makes his sacrifice on Calvary 2,000 years ago present to us in our own time and space, making Himself substantially present under the appearances of Bread and Wine, uniting us to Him (and therefore to each other) as the Body of Christ through the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We worship God through joining ourselves with Christ in the sacrifice He made for us.
Several actions by Archbishop Cordileone merited approval by CatholicVote, the organization said.
They cited his “boldly” challenging the claim by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat in his diocese, of being a “devout Catholic” despite her support for abortion, in contravention of church teachings.
“Defying physical threats and the Twitter mob,” CatholicVote said, Archbishop Cordileone “publicly defended St. Junipero Serra and the Catholic missions in California” against charges of mistreating indigenous peoples.
Ms. Pelosi describes herself as a devout Catholic but has not been without religious controversy because of her pro-choice views on abortion. Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone, whose archdiocese includes Pelosi’s congressional district, made headlines for starting a “Rose and Rosary for Nancy” campaign. Almost 12,200 people joined in to pray for the Speaker to have a change of heart on abortion and sent her flowers to invoke the help of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
The top of the CatholicVote list is San Francisco’s own Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone. “Does any prelate lead quite like Archbishop Cordileone?” asked CatholicVote, a national pro-life Catholic 501-c-3 organization.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco is S
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco
“Let me repeat: no one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it.” ~Archbishop Cordileone
Does any prelate lead quite like Archbishop Cordileone?
He boldly called out Nancy Pelosi on her spurious claim to be a “devout Catholic,” but he also started a national campaign of prayer for her conversion and salvation.
Defying physical threats and the Twitter mob, he publicly defended St. Junipero Serra and the Catholic missions in California. He also reached out as a spiritual father to Catholic high school students who were protesting a pro-life speaker. And he challenged his brother bishops to join together in publicly witnessing to Eucharistic coherence.
Why? He’s a man of deep integrity. For him, everything stems from a profound conviction that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ himself.
He sees that the Body and Blood of Christ is the foundation of the dignity of the human person, and the only path forward for a just society.
peaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’s bishop. Archbishop Cordileone and Pelosi are both Catholic. And that’s about where their similarities end.
Pelosi, a committed Democrat, lamented that the support of pro-life voters for former President Donald Trump was an issue that “gives me great grief as a Catholic.” Pelosi made the comment on a Jan. 18 podcast with former senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“I think that Donald Trump is president because of the issue of a woman’s right to choose,” said Pelosi, implying that pro-life voters boosted Trump to victory in 2016. She added that these voters “were willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”
Archbishop Cordileone rebuked Pelosi in a statement issued days later, saying, “No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion” and that ”Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop,” he said.
The archbishop also promoted a “Rose and a Rosary for Nancy Pelosi” campaign, which saw more than 16,000 people commit to praying for Pelosi’s change of heart on life issues.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)’s bishop. Archbishop Cordileone and Pelosi are both Catholic. And that’s about where their similarities end.
Pelosi, a committed Democrat, lamented that the support of pro-life voters for former President Donald Trump was an issue that “gives me great grief as a Catholic.” Pelosi made the comment on a Jan. 18 podcast with former senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“I think that Donald Trump is president because of the issue of a woman’s right to choose,” said Pelosi, implying that pro-life voters boosted Trump to victory in 2016. She added that these voters “were willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”
Archbishop Cordileone rebuked Pelosi in a statement issued days later, saying, “No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion” and that ”Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop,” he said.
The archbishop also promoted a “Rose and a Rosary for Nancy Pelosi” campaign, which saw more than 16,000 people commit to praying for Pelosi’s change of heart on life issues.
Third, some Catholic bishops have become increasingly vocal about the evil of abortion and the supposedly Catholic politicians like Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who support it. They have expressed serious concerns that these politicians, through their prominence and actions, are creating “scandal” for the church by making it seem acceptable to be Catholic and support the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
In particular, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Tyler, Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland and Cardinal Raymond Burke, have been strong in their insistence that Biden and Pelosi repent and stop supporting abortion if they want to continue to receive Communion.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco will serve as principal celebrant of the Mass of the Americas Saturday, Jan. 15, at 11 a.m. at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, 263 Mulberry St. in lower Manhattan.
The Solemn Pontifical High Mass, with the Benedict Sixteen Choir and Orchestra, is a tribute to the Blessed Mother under her titles of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States and Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of Mexico and all the Americas.
Rorate Mass celebrated by His Excellency Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco; photos courtesy of Roseanne Sullivan.
Thousands of roses are being delivered to the Washington, D.C., office of Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, as part of a prayer campaign to help her change her mind about legal abortion.
The “Rose and Rosary for Nancy” campaign was initiated September 29 by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. Pelosi, a Democrat, is a resident of San Francisco and a Catholic. She also holds strong positions in support of legal abortion.
Following Archbishop Cordileone’s call, thousands of Catholics signed up at BenedictInstitute.org, pledging to pray at least one rosary a week for Pelosi and fast on Fridays for her conversion. The Archdiocese of San Francisco pledged to send one rose for each person who signed up.
Thousands in the Archdiocese of San Francisco have joined an initiative in praying for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and for her to have a change of heart regarding abortions. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone says he is pleased with the results of a Rose and a Rosary for Pelosi.
“It’s not politics that’s motivating me; I’m a pastor of souls,” Cordileone said. “And I want to help people on the path to salvation to be at peace in their conscience before the time when they appear before God.”
It remains to be seen what “concrete gestures” will accompany the bishops’ recent synodal document on the Eucharist. Perhaps one example they might emulate is that taken by Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco.
While the archbishop has been unflinching in his denunciation of abortion, and responded forthrightly to questions about the position of his most prominent local Catholic, Nancy Pelosi, on the subject, he has stopped short of publicly announcing that she would be barred from receiving Communion.
Instead, Cordileone has reiterated that he is pursuing private dialogue with a member of his flock, and urged a public campaign of prayer for her to change her mind on abortion.
The archbishop of San Francisco has encouraged students at a local Catholic high school to reject the lies of the abortion industry and become courageous advocates for life, following a boycott of a pro-life assembly at the school.
“Do not be victims of the culture,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote in an open letter to students at Archbishop Riordan High School.
Cordileone met with student leaders at the high school on Nov. 8 to discuss the incident.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco told the Register that “our goal is not to make abortion illegal; our goal is to make abortion unthinkable. Making it illegal will be a great help toward that end only if we’re truly pro-life and provide women real options.”
He said that women need “love and support to make the choice for life; bring that baby in the world and raise that baby in the world — and that’s why I’m so proud of our Catholics and other people of faith who run these pro-life crisis-pregnancy clinics. They give the woman that possibility. If all we did was make abortion illegal and did nothing else, it could make the situation worse, because there would be a lot of back-alley abortions, and it’s highly unregulated as it is now.”
Archbishop Cordileone added that while he was happy for the possibility that Roe could be overturned, “it would go back to the states, the political fight and advocacy would be at the state level, but it doesn’t change our mission of being pro-life and providing women love and support so they can make a choice for life and be happy.”
In recent years Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and the San Francisco Archdiocese have begun to celebrate an annual Mass to memorialize the deceased homeless. This year the event would be augmented by the artistic efforts emerging from associates of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship.
The Catholic bishops of the U.S. ended a nearly yearlong debate Wednesday over whether to bar politicians who support abortion rights from receiving the Eucharist, passing new guidance on Communion that doesn’t address the issue.
The measure passed by a vote of 222-8 and was followed by applause at a gathering here of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and other supporters of the document being voted on have said in the past it’s not directed at any particular Catholic but the election of President Biden “gave a stimulus” to having bigger conversations about the topic.
“The election of President Biden, a church-going Catholic, who also takes positions that are direct attacks, direct attacks on human life, gave more impetus to this,” Cordileone told CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco proposed an amendment to the document because, he wrote, it failed to include the unborn on its list of “vulnerable people.” The amendment echoed a debate from 2019, when bishops voted to describe the “threat of abortion” as their “preeminent priority” in a voting guide ahead of the 2020 election.
Archbishop Cordileone, who has recently supported a public prayer campaign targeting Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her support of legalized abortion, wrote in his proposed modification that if the document failed to emphasize abortion, it would “place yet another pastoral obstacle in the path to our efforts to teach and witness convincingly to the dignity of human life in the womb.”
“‘To fail to acknowledge the category of human beings that represents the largest destruction of human life in our time would be a glaring omission. Moreover, for some of us, it would turn this document into a problem rather than a help,’ wrote San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, one of the more outspoken conservative bishops. His suggestion was accepted by the committee.”
The Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco and an outspoken conservative, believes pro-choice politicians should not be offered Communion. In 2008, while auxiliary bishop of San Diego, he helped lead the fight for California’s Proposition 8, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. In 2015, he warned teachers at four local Catholic high schools that they could not publicly support homosexual acts, embryonic stem cell research and contraception. In September 2020, he took on the state of California for limiting indoor church services while giving latitude to shopping malls.
This past September, he asked Catholics to pray and fast for a “conversion of heart” of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who campaigns for abortion rights. He also placed editorials in major newspapers slamming pro-choice Catholic politicians—he didn’t mention Biden by name—for being on the wrong side of the abortion debate. Biden struck back by scheduling an Oct. 30 meeting with the Pope.
Newsweek Contributing Editor for Religion Julia Duin spoke to Archbishop Cardileone about the intersection of religion and politics, and what to expect from the bishops’ conference.
At the meeting in June, San Francisco archbishop Salvatore Cordileone asked how the bishops can “expect to be taken seriously” if they do not “act courageously, clearly and convincingly on this core Catholic value,” the Washington Post reported.
Cordileone, who is Pelosi’s archbishop, has said priests should deny Communion to Catholic public figures who support abortion rights.
Among the outspoken Biden critics is Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco — the hometown of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a Catholic. Cordileone has made clear his view that Pelosi and Biden should refrain from receiving Communion.
Cordileone told AP he’s not expecting the proposed document to single out Biden, but he wants it to send a firm message regarding Catholics in public life and their stance on abortion.
He cited several “grave evils” that pose threats to society — such as human trafficking, racism, terrorism, climate change and a flawed immigration system.
“The difference with abortion,” he added, “is that it is the only one of these grave evils that many people in public life are explicitly promoting.”
Responding to Stowe’s comments, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, a supporter of the draft document, told CNA that it is vital that the bishops speak clearly on the Eucharist.
“To forge a new unity in Christ, and a new Eucharistic revival, we bishops will have to work hard, remain open to each other and to the Holy Spirit and hold fast to the Teachings of Christ including this one: The Eucharist is the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord. Take Communion only if you are in communion with Him. Confession opens the gate to heaven,” Cordileone said.
“We need to speak truth to each other, and to speak God’s truth to those in power,” he said.
MOST REV. SALVATORE CORDILEONE, Archbishop of San Francisco and member of the USCCB Canonical Affairs Committee discuss the upcoming USCCB Fall Assembly, the discussion of Eucharistic Coherence and the latest controversy over the status of the Traditional Latin Mass.
In a new interview, Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who oversees House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home diocese, the Archdiocese of San Francisco, slammed the Biden administration for supporting the abortion “bloodbath” and discussed if pro-abortion politicians should receive Holy Communion.
In a Columbus Day press conference, activists called on Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli to drop all the charges against the five people who trespassed onto the parish grounds of Mission San Rafael with ropes and paint to deface a statue of Junípero Serra. The five have been charged with felony vandalism (destruction of property worth more than $1,000) and their case is slowly winding its way through the Marin County courts.
According to reports by the local media, it appears these vandals’ defenders are essentially saying that Serra is such a monster that they are entitled to destroy other people’s sacred objects to call attention to historical abuses.
You don’t have to be Catholic, or agree with my views on Serra, to recognize that this is wrong and intolerable in a free and diverse society.
I repeat what I have said before: The people advocating this negative view of Serra don’t know the man Pope Francis canonized in 2015.
According to my studies, Serra renounced a comfortable life as a university professor to cross an ocean and serve the Indigenous peoples by bringing them the best thing he knew: faith in Jesus Christ.
He defended them, and not without great personal sacrifice, against the Spanish soldiers who committed human rights abuses. He educated them. Then, with their help, they built the beautiful mission churches, inventing a style of architecture together that is still widely admired today. When he died, Spaniards and Indians alike mourned his passing. All things considered, he is a model of what those who call for racial justice say we should act like.
It is my understanding that the missions were secularized by the Mexican government and the Franciscans were ordered to leave before they could realize their vision of handing the mission property over to the Indians for their own self-governance. And then the real genocide began, perpetrated not by gentle Franciscan friars but by California political elites whose names and statues still line our state Capitol.
The prosecution of the Serra statue vandals is not — or not only — a debate about him; it is about our own standards of how we treat each other when we disagree.
Regardless of how much anyone may disagree with Muslims’ views of the Prophet Muhammed, we do not advocate for the right of vandals to trespass on a mosque and deface their sacred space to express a dissenting point of view. We would never say that those who disagree with the Israeli government can enter a synagogue and obliterate the Star of David to express their grievances.
In 2006, Bishop Francis Quinn conducted a moving service in which he apologized for cruelties committed against Miwok people by church officials. I join him in this. I would hope it might motivate others responsible for human rights abuses against the Indigenous people of California to do the same.
In Serra’s case, he left a legacy of thousands of spiritual children, many of whom remain practicing Catholics. They are a long part of the fabric of the Catholic community in the Bay Area and beyond. The prosecution of the Serra statute vandals is fundamentally about people of all faiths, and none, coming together to defend the rights of all.
The job of a district attorney is to uphold the law fairly for all, Catholics included, and we thank Frugoli for doing her duty.
It has been written that restorative justice should be considered. To date, the perpetrators of the crime have not asked me to explore restorative justice. The first condition of restorative justice is that the person who committed the crime takes responsibility and admits the wrongdoing and apologizes for the offense inflicted. The next step is for both parties to seek mutual understanding, and then for the offender or offenders to make reparation.
I would rejoice and be grateful to begin such a journey of reconciliation with the Serra statue vandals. However, if the press conference last month is any indication, I fear that this is not something in which they or their supporters are interested.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone leads the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, serving Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco counties.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone has applauded the charges as a “breakthrough moment for Catholics.” It does not appear that any other protesters who have toppled or vandalized Serra statues have faced any kind of charges.
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone brought together San Francisco’s faith, civic and social service communities at St. Mary’s Cathedral for a special Mass he commissioned to pray for the souls of homeless people who died on the city’s streets.
The “Requiem Mass for the Homeless” Nov. 6 featured the sacred music of Frank La Rocca, composer-in-residence of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship in San Francisco.
In this wide-ranging conversation on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” host Gloria Purvis speaks with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco about some of the most contested issues in the Catholic Church today. Gloria asks the archbishop about President Biden’s meeting with Pope Francis, his relationship with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the ongoing debate over Communion for pro-choice Catholic politicians and more.
The Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, is asking Catholics to focus on, pray for and find ways to support the homeless this year. Over the weekend, the archbishop held a requiem Mass for the homeless with sacred music by his composer, Frank LaRocca, to depict life on the streets. Archbishop Cordileone says, “The whole message of this Mass and what I tried to highlight in my homily is that we are all children of God. We all have equal human dignity.” He explained the day by saying, “We walked over to the Tenderloin the more impoverished of San Francisco, where the Franciscans operate a dining hall with many other wonderful services and also staff and parish there. It was a very beautiful day. I keep telling Frank LaRocca he is a genius because he can take my outlandish ideas and actually realize them.”
As I approach these next few weeks, I am struck less with the conflicts the media likes to project than with the deeply reinforcing unity of Church teaching, grounded in the Catholic sacramental sense.
The debate over whether the president should receive communion only adds to the conflict between the Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the same issue.
Oh, yes, and Francis granted a private audience to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) this month even though her home archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, had said not two weeks earlier that public figures who support abortion rights should be denied Communion. The archbishop urged Catholics to pray for Pelosi to undergo a “conversion of heart.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also recently met with Pope Francis. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has repeatedly spoken out in opposition to Catholic politicians supporting abortion, and urged prayer for Pelosi.
Francis already has made clear he won’t shun U.S. political leaders who support abortion rights. On Oct. 9 he met at the Vatican with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose abortion stance has drawn the wrath of the top Catholic in her hometown of San Francisco, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.
Cordileone has been urging the U.S. bishops conference to send a message to Biden, Pelosi and others “that would move them in their conscience.”
If facts are what matters here, it’s obvious that San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordelione should play a major role in these debates — since he is Pelosi’s bishop. Thus, he plays a crucial role in determining her sacramental status in the church. Who included his voice in this discussion and who didn’t?
Arroyo’s guest lineup is a who’s-who of the Catholic right, including Steve Bannon, likely soon-to-be prosecuted for contempt in Congress’ investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection. His favorite guests from the hierarchy are San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Bishop Thomas Paprocki from Springfield, Illinois; Cardinal Gerhard Müller (whom Francis removed as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan — conservative darlings all.
But this week, CNSNews.com reported that Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is calling on prayer to win over Pelosi.
Cordileone urged all Catholics to offer special prayers, and to fast, every Friday for Pelosi.
“Speaker Pelosi speaks fondly of her children,” he said. “She clearly has a maternal heart. Pope Francis has called abortion murder, the equivalent of hiring a hitman to solve a problem. The solution to a woman in a crisis pregnancy is not violence but love.”
Because Ms. Pelosi supports legalized abortion, her archbishop, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, asked “all Catholics and others of good will” to join a prayer and fasting campaign for her “conversion.”
To be fair, a few Church leaders in California and beyond have made laudible efforts to stand up against the sacrilege of the rioters.
The Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, has visited two other sites where statues had been torn down. There, he performed a religious rite called “exorcism,” a prayer to cast out evil and reclaim a person or place for God.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone described HR 3755 as “nothing short of child sacrifice.” It would make abortion legal for any reason before the child can survive outside the womb, which is usually considered to be between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy. After viability is reached, abortion would be legal if an abortion services provider says that “continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.” This language seems to allow restrictions, but in effect it eliminates limitations on late-term abortions. “Health” is not defined in the bill, but courts have considered emotional and financial concerns as “health.” Risk does not have to be physical or serious. Nothing in the bill requires an attempt to preserve the life of a baby who could survive outside the womb.
| You frequently remind us you come from a family of pro-life Catholics and that you had five children in six years. You even credit the skills you developed while bringing up your children for making you the leader you are today. As Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone pointed out when launching the “Roses and Rosaries for Nancy” campaign, you obviously have a “maternal heart.” You also care deeply for the poor. |
In that piece Cordileone argued that Catholic bishops should not “stay in [their] lane” as pastors and bishops, but that they have a right, even a duty, to excommunicate Catholic officeholders who are “on the wrong side of the preeminent human rights issue of our time [abortion].”
Catholic leaders have contested the notion that St. Junipero Serra was such a controversial figure. On September 13, Archbishops Jose Gomez of Los Angeles and Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which they called such claims “outrageous.”
Close to 12,200 people in the Archdiocese of San Francisco have joined the “Rose and Rosary for Nancy” campaign launched by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone to urge prayers for a “change of heart” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on abortion.
El Arzobispo de San Francisco, Mons. Salvatore Cordileone, precisó que el reciente encuentro del Papa Francisco con Nancy Pelosi, no significa un respaldo de la Iglesia Católica a la postura a favor del aborto de la presidenta de la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos.
Así lo expresó el Prelado el 13 de octubre, en una entrevista para el programa “The Chris Salcedo Shaw” de Newsmax TV.
Last week, Francis held a private audience with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been the target of similar criticism by conservative Catholics, including her own archbishop, over her support for abortion rights.
In September, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone issued a statement “inviting all Catholics to join in a massive and visible campaign of prayer and fasting for Speaker Pelosi: commit to praying one rosary a week and fasting on Fridays for her conversion of heart.” This week, the Benedict XVI Institute, whose board Archbishop Cordileone chairs, announced it would spend $50,000 on digital advertising featuring the archbishop promoting the rosary campaign.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in May that Pelosi wasn’t entitled to Communion due to her support of abortion rights and that “she’s respectful enough not to do anything so provocative.”
But Pelosi also has faced backlash, including from San Francisco’s archbishop, who likened abortion to “child sacrifice” in a recent statement.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone urged Catholics to “pray and fast for members of Congress to do the right thing and keep this atrocity from being enacted in the law.” He also called the proposal is “surely the type of legislation one would expect from a devout Satanist, not a devout Catholic.”
Because Pelosi supports legalized abortion, her archbishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, asked “all Catholics and others of goodwill” to join a prayer and fasting campaign for Pelosi’s “conversion.”
On Sept. 24, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that mandates the removal of a statue of Serra from the grounds of the state capitol. Gomez and San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone published an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal decrying the bill and arguing that “no serious historian” agrees with the legislative language, which states: “Enslavement of both adults and children, mutilation, genocide, and assault on women were all part of the mission period initiated and overseen by Father Serra.”
La visita de la Pelosi al Vaticano nos ha devuelto al debate sobre la comunión de Biden. A estas alturas, no tenemos dudas que el Papa Francisco es favorable, sin decirlo mucho, pero favorable. Tenemos artículo de Jeff Mirus, presidente de Trinity Communications: «¿Sirviente o adulador?» y se refiere a la última hazaña del Papa Francisco, quien, con gran coraje y desprecio por cualquier crítica farisaica a los siniestros tradicionalistas, recibió en audiencia a la Pelosi. Cordileone, no solo reprendió públicamente a la Pelosi, autodenominada católica practicante, por su apoyo al aborto, sino que también pidió oraciones y ayunos por su conversión. La Pelosi, italoamericana de 81 años, es la portavoz de los demócratas en el Congreso, defensora de pro-elección, de libertad de aborto, y financiamiento estatal de organizaciones pro-aborto, ambientalista radical, pro inmigración, pro investigación sobre células madre embrionarias y contra escuelas privadas; todo ello parece ser muy apreciado por el Papa Francisco.
Because Pelosi supports legalized abortion, her archbishop, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, asked “all Catholics and others of goodwill” to join a prayer and fasting campaign for Pelosi’s “conversion.”
“A conversion of heart of the majority of our congressional representatives is needed on this issue, beginning with the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” Archbishop Cordileone said in a statement Sept. 29.
This comes after Pelosi met with Pope Francis last weekend amid Catholic backlash for her pro-abortion stance despite self-identifying as a “devout” Catholic.
“No one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it,” San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone scolded Pelosi in a statement.
More than 10,000 people have committed to pray the rosary and to fast on Fridays for the ideological conversion of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the subject of abortion, the Benedict XVI Institute announced Tuesday.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone last month San Francisco Called for a “massive and visible campaign of prayer and fasting” for the conversion of Pelosi’s mind after the passage of HR 3755. According to him, it would “require abortion nationwide at any stage of pregnancy.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in May that Pelosi wasn’t entitled to communion due to her support of legal abortion and that “she’s respectful enough not to do anything so provocative.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone called on Catholics and “others of goodwill” to join the campaign a few days after The Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021 passed in the House, 218 to 211, on Friday.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco tweeted on Tuesday that it was “very sad news” that the Afghan employees were still unable to get out. “Keep praying for Roots of Peace workers.”
Archbishops plead with California Gov Newsom over controversial statue
Stop the Slander of Father Serra
Archbishops urge California governor to save controversial statue of 18th-century priest
California bishops defend St. Junipero from legislators’ “slander”
S.F. archbishop pleads with Newsom to save Junipero Serra statue at state Capitol
An Urgent Human Rights Challenge
Interview with Archbishop Cordileone
As Biden continues down the path away from Church teachings and risks misleading other Catholics about it, the more that Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s argument will resonate with the other members of the USCCB
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone similarly criticized these leaders and also highlighted state support for pregnancy centers in Texas in a Sept. 5 op-ed piece in The Washington Post where he said: “Texas gets this right.”
“The state is investing $100 million to help mothers by funding pregnancy centers, adoption agencies and maternity homes and providing free services including counseling, parenting help, diapers, formula and job training to mothers who want to keep their babies,” he said.
The archbishop primarily emphasized the importance of Catholics speaking out against abortion and urged Catholics to particularly challenge Catholic politicians who support laws favoring abortion.
“You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings,” he said.
One of the few bishops to have spoken is Archbishop Cordileone
Qualificando o aborto como “o mais urgente desafio de direitos humanos de nosso tempo”, o arcebispo de São Francisco, EUA, dom Salvatore Cordileone levantou a excomunhão de católicos segregacionistas no início dos anos 1960 como exemplo de reação legítima contra políticos católicos que apoiam “um grande mal moral.”
Em artigo de opinião publicado no jornal The Washington Post, o arcebispo atacou declarações recentes de políticos católicos contra a lei aprovada no Texas que proíbe abortos assim que o batimento cardíaco do bebê puder ser detectado.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s archbishop is defending a pro-life law that went into effect in Texas and doubling down on his previous assertions that Catholics in good standing cannot support abortion.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco wrote an op-ed piece for The Washington Post illustrating “Our duty to challenge Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.” Cordileone, who oversees territory that includes the area Pelosi represents in the Congress, called her out as one of several Catholic politicians who support a practice that directly contradicts the church’s teaching.
His Excellency Archbishop Cordileone stops by to discuss his recent article about when the Church has used excommunication against public figures for grave misuse of their faith
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, recently wrote, in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, about the politics of abortion and how he feels it parallels the institutional racial discrimination of the past. Archbishop Cordileone talks about that and why he felt it was so important to speak out. He also wrote about how the Texas Heartbeat Law “got it right” by providing funding to support mothers and children. The archbishop of San Francisco discusses the options for women with unexpected pregnancies. Earlier this year, bishops debated over whether or not politicians who publicly support and advocate for access to abortions should be allowed to receive Holy Communion. He responds to claims that the bishops are “weaponizing the Eucharist.” He also shares his thoughts on excommunicating Catholic public figures who support abortions.
San Francisco archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Sunday shared a message to Catholics like President Joe Biden and House speaker Nancy Pelosi who have condemned Texas’s new abortion law: “You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings.”
Calling abortion “the most pressing human rights challenge of our time,” Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone on Sunday invoked the excommunication of prominent Catholic segregationists in the early 1960s as an example of a legitimate response to Catholics politicians who support “a great moral evil.”
Pastors who “speak softly” about the brutal murder of more than 60 million children should instead mimic Catholic leaders who boldly challenged racial segregation in the 1950s, said the Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore J. Cordileone.
Calling abortion “the most pressing human rights challenge of our time,” Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone on Sunday invoked the excommunication of prominent Catholic segregationists in the early 1960s as an example of a legitimate response to Catholics politicians who support “a great moral evil.”
W tekście na łamach waszyngtońskiego dziennika Cordileone zwrócił uwagę na “hiperboliczne” jego zdaniem reakcje dwóch katolickich polityków na teksańskie prawo, prezydenta Joe Bidena i spikerkę Izby Reprezentantów Nancy Pelosi, którzy ostro potępili ustawę należącą do najbardziej restrykcyjnych w kraju.
Metropolita San Francisco, abp Salvatore Cordileone, należy do tej części amerykańskiego episkopatu, która podniosła kwestię stosowania katolickiego nauczania i Kodeksu prawa kanonicznego wobec polityków uważających się za katolików i wyznających poglądy rażąco odbiegające od katolickiej ortodoksji.
L’archevêque de San Francisco s’élève contre le président Joe Biden, la présidente de la Chambre Nancy Pelosi et d’autres politiciens catholiques qui ont attaqué la nouvelle loi sur l’avortement au Texas, suggérant qu’ils violaient la doctrine fondamentale de l’église.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has publicly called out Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Joe Biden for supporting abortion while claiming to be devout Catholics.
Salvatore Cordileone, the archbishop of San Francisco, says it is the duty of Catholic leaders to challenge Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
In an op-ed published by The Washington Post on Sunday, Cordileone said, “You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone emphasized Sunday that Catholics have a duty to challenge pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Late Wednesday night, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny abortion providers’ requests to block Texas’ new law banning abortion after 6 weeks. Both Biden and Pelosi issued statements condemning the Supreme Court ruling and the Texas law and promising to take action to reverse the pro-life legislation.
The archbishop of San Francisco condemned “self-proclaimed Catholics” Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for their hypocritical support of abortion. In a recent op-ed, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone defended Texas’s ban on abortions after six weeks.
Cordileone characterized abortion as the “preeminent human rights issues of our time” and said more than 60 million lives have been lost to abortion since the Roe vs. Wade decision. He added pro-abortion politicians should be denied Holy Communion.
“You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings,” he stated. “The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence but love, for both mother and child.”
Rebukes Nancy Pelosi’s Critique of Pro-Life Voters
Five people arrested for damaging and tearing down a statue of Saint Junipero Serra last month at the Mission San Rafael Arcángel now face felony vandalism charges.
The archbishop of San Francisco condemned “self-proclaimed Catholics” Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for their hypocritical support of abortion. In a recent op-ed, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone defended Texas’s ban on abortions after six weeks.
Cordileone characterized abortion as the “preeminent human rights issues of our time” and said more than 60 million lives have been lost to abortion since the Roe vs. Wade decision. He added pro-abortion politicians should be denied Holy Communion.
“You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings,” he stated. “The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence but love, for both mother and child.”
San Francisco Catholics Stage ‘Free The Mass’ March; Demand Easing Of COVID Limits Placed On Worship Services
Archbishop calls out California leaders for keeping church services to 12 people
El Arzobispo hizo un llamado a los feligreses para que participen en una procesión para pedir que se flexibilicen las restricciones que tiene la iglesia
Arquidiócesis de San Francisco desafía a la alcaldesa y convoca a marcha para reabrir las iglesias by Victor Solis
Convocan a marcha para reabrir las iglesias en San Francisco
“FREE THE MASS” in San Francisco! by Fr. Mark Goring
Most Rev Salvatore Cordileone with Raymond Arroyo
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone with Raymond Arroyo