The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco is getting pushback from some parents, students and teachers at parochial schools after unveiling faculty handbook language calling on teachers to lead their public and professional lives consistently with church teachings on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, birth control and other behaviors he describes as evil.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone plans to include the language in next year’s faculty handbooks for four high schools owned and operated by the archdiocese. The document states all administrators, faculty and staff, including non-Catholics, will be required to refrain from saying or doing anything publicly that contradicts church doctrine.
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The U.S. Supreme Court has exempted churches and religious schools from having to abide by federal anti-discrimination laws for employees in “ministerial roles.”
Liberal San Franciscans have viewed Cordileone with suspicion even before he was installed as archbishop in October 2012. As the auxiliary bishop in San Diego, he helped spearhead the passage in 2008 of a state constitutional amendment that had outlawed same-sex marriage in California. Since 2011, he has chaired the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops subcommittee that works to oppose same-sex marriage nationwide.
