Cordileone: I Won’t Be At The Hate March

Over the weekend I noted that San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s name was not on NOM’s list of speakers for Saturday’s hate march. Yesterday he confirmed his non-attendance with the San Francisco Chronicle:

San Francisco’s Roman Catholic archbishop has decided not to attend this year’s annual march against same-sex marriage in Washington, D.C., avoiding a repeat of an appearance that proved controversial back home last year. Other U.S. bishops will instead represent the Catholic Church at Saturday’s rally, the San Francisco Archdiocese said in a brief statement issued Wednesday evening explaining why Cordileone would not be going. In an earlier statement to The Chronicle confirming his non-attendance, the archdiocese said Cordileone’s “highest priority” was his intention to speak with teachers and families in local Catholic schools, where there has been an outcry over the archbishop’s demand that staffers sign a morality clause declaring sex outside marriage and homosexual relations to be “gravely evil.”

“While he remains involved in national issues, Archbishop Cordileone will not be attending the march,” the archdiocese said in its statement Wednesday. “His highest priority in the coming days is a productive dialogue with Catholic-school teachers and families here in San Francisco, whose concerns are very important to him.” A leader in the archdiocese teachers movement to oppose the proposed morality code said he had heard nothing of a renewed dialogue with the archbishop. “We have nothing to our knowledge planned,” said Sal Curcio, a teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic High School. “I double-checked my e-mail. Nothing there. I’ve asked a few people, and so far nobody has heard of any meeting planned.”

The archdiocese has also issued a press release.