The following comes from an April 29 email from San Francisco Catholics:

San Francisco’s May 16 Archbishop Family Support Picnic has been moved to a new location. The picnic, an opportunity for San Francisco Catholics to support their faithful Archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, has been moved to San Francisco’s Sue Bierman Park, at the foot of Market Street. The picnic, which had been scheduled for the city’s Little Marina Green, was moved to the new location on the advice of city officials, concerned that the anticipated numbers would overwhelm Little Marina Green

Archbishop Cordileone has been under relentless attack from the power structure of the city of San Francisco, international LGBT activists, elected officials, the media, and “prominent Catholics” for his efforts to ensure that fidelity to the whole teaching of the Catholic Church is articulated in Archdiocesan High Schools. The opposition has mobilized faithful Catholics, not only in San Francisco and around the Bay Area, but all over the country as well, to rally around the Archbishop and the Catholic Church. That initiatives on the part of the hierarchy to ensure faithful Catholic teaching are needed was thoroughly documented in a 2014 series of articles in CalCatholic. The articles documented the widespread presence of open, activist homosexuals in the departments of theology/religious studies at religious order high schools in the Archdiocese. If any further doubt remained, it evaporated when 80% of the teachers in the Archdiocese’s own high schools signed a petition rejecting the initiative.

The contrast between the supportors and opponents of Cordileone is stark. The extremely expensive April 15 advertisement in the anti-Catholic San Francisco Chronicle from “prominent Catholics” asking Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Cordileone, was signed by many “well-connected” people. Whether they are well-connected are not, some of them are extremely wealthy. The signers were overwhelmingly white, with not a Chinese name among them, and very few identifiably Hispanic names. In contrast, the website of the Family Support Picnic recognizes the diversity of San Francisco’s Catholic Church, with webpages and flyers in Spanish and Chinese as well as English.

The lead organizer of the picnic is Eva Muntean, co-founder and co-chair of the Walk for Life West Coast, one of the largest annual events in San Francisco. Muntean’s proven ability to mobilize tens of thousands of Catholics and other pro-lifers may have influenced the city’s advice that the picnic be moved to the larger site. Unquestionably Sue Bierman Park is the better location. It is at the foot of Market Street, San Francisco’s main thoroughfare, and adjacent to Justin Herman Plaza, the original site of the Walk for Life West Coast. It has a play area for the many children who will be at the picnic, as well of lots of grass, food vendors, and street vendors. It is also adjacent to the Embarcadero BART Station which also serves San Francisco’s light rail, and is by the terminal to a number of city buses. Muntean said “The city was concerned because of how many people might show up, which of course makes us happy. But we would like to know the numbers of people attending, so we ask that you please visit our website where there is a place for you to let us know how many are in your party.

But I love this change! For those not familiar with Sue Bierman Park, it’s the large grassy park right next to Justin Herman Plaza. This is a much larger area with a huge playground for the kids, restaurants next door and across the street, beautiful views, and a BART station nearby. Plus we’ll get noticed more!”

The Archbishop Family Support Picnic is on Saturday, May 16, beginning at 11:00 AM. To learn more, or download flyers, visit:

https://www.sfcatholics.org/