Archbishop Cordileone: Our duty is to speak the truth on marriage

What a blessing it is to be living in the Archdiocese of San Francisco under Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone! I feel like I am with Athanasius: one man and the truth against all the powers of the world.


Here is an excerpt from His Excellency's speech to his brother bishops at last week's USCCB meeting, as reported by LifeSiteNews:

"If the US Supreme Court decides to redefine marriage in the next couple weeks it will not stop the nation’s bishops from proclaiming the truth, says the archbishop serving as point man on the issue.

'Regardless of what happens at the end of this month, nothing the court says can change what marriage truly is and we will continue to promote and defend it,' said San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, chairman for the USCCB Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

The archbishop quoted Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to illustrate the point for his fellow bishops at their Spring Assembly earlier this month in St. Louis.

'Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me,' said Archbishop Cordileone. 'The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.'

'We may have to suffer this lie about marriage in the law,' he continued, 'but we must not participate in it or keep silent about it.'

He suggested to his fellow bishops that the faithful can offer up small hardships in this regard for the Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere who are being killed and exiled for the faith.

The archbishop knows something about taking heat for the Catholic faith, with the attacks on him over the last several months for working to strengthen the Church’s identity in San Francisco Catholic high schools. His fellow bishops applauded him fervently at the end of his presentation after USCCB President Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz thanked him for his courageous leadership for the Church."

It is a strange but good experience for me as a man born in America to learn the age-old message of the Church, that any country, no matter how good, can never completely be our home. We've been historically spoiled by living in America because it has been so wonderful--so much so that it almost became a religion of its own. Our home is Holy Mother Church.

Bless the Archbishop!