The June 20 issue of Catholic San Francisco, the newspaper of the archdiocese of San Francisco, carried an article titled “Faith compels archbishop to tell ‘whole truth’ about marriage.” The article, from Catholic News Service, began “Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said June 16 that his Catholic faith requires him to “proclaim … the whole truth” in support of traditional marriage.
He made the statement in a letter addressing recent criticism of his participation in the second annual March for Marriage to take place in Washington June 19. The march brings thousands of grass-roots activists to the National Mall to illustrate that a “majority of Americans still stand for marriage” as the traditional union of one man and one woman.”
The article also reported that on June 17 “a small group of protestors” had visited the San Francisco Chancery to present a petition requesting the archbishop not attend the rally. CNS reported:
“It is essential to us that that the archbishop understand he will be standing shoulder to shoulder with members of what we consider, a hate group,” said Gregg Cassin, who spoke for the protesters and met with archdiocesan communications director Christine Mugridge after the protest.”

Since Cassin claims to consider those at the March for Marriage “a hate group,” and since Archbishop Cordileone, in his capacity as chair of the subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, is officially representing the Catholic Church at the March, it is hard to see how he can’t consider the Catholic Church a “hate group.”

Cassin has been the subject of three recent articles in CalCatholic. On March 21, we reported that Cassin, an open LGBT activist who has led rallies attacking marriage, was leading a retreat for the students at Notre Dame de Namur High School in Belmont. On May 5, we reported that Notre Dame had cancelled an upcoming appearance by Cassin. On May 26, we reported that Notre Dame had cancelled their cancellation. Since the school seems unable to make up its mind whether or not to host a speaker who considers the Catholic Church a “hate group,” perhaps it is time for the archdiocese of San Francisco to assert its authority.

While Notre Dame de Namur High School is under the control of a religious order, the school is listed as a Catholic school on the archdiocesan website and on the website of the San Francisco Department of Catholic Schools.

The leadership of Notre Dame De Namur’s California province consists of: Sister Louise O’Reilly, Sister Georgianna Coonis, and Sister Virginia Unger. All may be contacted at: Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Province Center, 1520 Ralston Avenue, Belmont CA 94002.
For the archdiocese of San Francisco, contact: Maureen Huntington, superintendent of Catholic Schools or Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone; all at the Archdiocese of San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco CA 94109.

Most important is to contact the principal of your local Catholic elementary schools. Almost all enrollment to Catholic high schools come from Catholic elementary feeder schools. Contact information for the elementary schools within the archdiocese of San Francisco may be found by clicking here.