House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has weighed in on NOM's 'marriage' march to be held in Washington DC on June 19, 2014. She has (strongly) asked San Francisco's Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to exit that event and not speak, and characterized the event as "venom masquerading as virtue."
From sfgate.com:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took the lead this week in a high-profile lobbying effort to pressure San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone not to attend the controversial March for Marriage event, which she characterized as "venom masquerading as virtue."
Pelosi, who is one of the country's most powerful Catholic politicians, made a passionate appeal to the archbishop in a letter obtained by The Chronicle not to participate in the National Organization for Marriage's June 19 march on the Supreme Court in Washington.
Cordileone, who is one of the featured speakers at the event, was a leader in the campaign for Proposition 8, the 2008 California anti-gay-marriage initiative.
"We share our love of the Catholic faith and our city of San Francisco," Pelosi wrote to Cordileone, who, as head of the 560,000-member Archdiocese of San Francisco, has become the Catholic bishops' point man against gay marriage. She urged him to abandon an event in which some of the participants show "disdain and hate towards LGBT persons."
Invoking the words of Pope Francis with regard to gays and lesbians, she wrote, "If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?"
The goal of the second annual March for Marriage is to draw thousands of supporters of what they call "traditional marriage" to walk from the U.S Capitol to the Supreme Court. Conservative former presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, as well as Cordileone, are being billed as the star speakers.
The San Francisco Democratic leader is the most influential in a parade of public figures who have come forward to protest the San Francisco archbishop's participation in an event that is also backed by the Family Research Council. Critics have called the organizers "hate groups" that are targeting gays and lesbians.
Last week, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with a host of Bay Area religious leaders, sent a joint letter to Cordileone protesting his plans to attend the march.
Some 20,000 people have signed an online petition by Faithful America demanding that the archbishop cancel his appearance.
Cordileone lead the effort of the US Conference of (Catholic) Bishops in favor of Proposition 8 in California in 2008, which banned marriage equality in the state. That ban has since been ruled unconstitutional and marriage equality is now the law of the land in California, no thanks to Cordileone.
You may also remember that the archbishop was arrested in San Diego for DUI in August of 2012.
More from sfgate:
Cordileone has remained outspoken in his opposition to gay marriage, saying, "The ultimate attack of the evil one is the attack on marriage."
Public officials, including Pelosi, have expressed respect for the archbishop's religious views, but have taken particular issue with the organizations sponsoring and participating in the event.
The Family Research Council has been labeled an antigay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It "blamed gay marriage for the recent shootings at Isla Vista," the Faithful America petition notes.
Pelosi, in her letter, told Cordileone, "While we may disagree on the subject of marriage equality, we do agree that every person is a child of God, possessed of the spark of divinity and worthy of respect."