Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone is part of a new secret group aiming to ‘save traditional marriage’.

According to research by Good as You, Cordileone is part of the Princeton Group, a newly-formed organisation which claims to be “developing and deploying an action plan to protect marriage and preserve religious liberties”.

A leaked invite shows the group’s meeting this month is hosted by a committee including National Organisation for Marriage President Brian Brown, NOM co-founder Maggie Gallagher, Alliance Defending Freedom President Alan Sears, and American Principles Project chairman Sean Fielder, alongside Cordileone.

The invite reads: “Last year a group of exceptional leaders in the arenas of business, academia, politics and culture started The Princeton Group – to formulate a plan to save marriage and to reinvigorate a flourishing marriage culture in America.

“Marriage has encountered unprecedented attacks from the highest seats of power and now stands in grave danger of being finally redefined out of existence.

“You have been chosen to be a part of this exceptional working group and to contribute first-hand to answering one of the most important societal challenges in US history.

“Now is the time to be part of an initiative that will be viewed by future generations as a turning point in the fight to save marriage in America.”

Blogging for Human Rights Campaign, Jeremy Hooper wrote: “It certainly seems like some sort of secret, shadowy version of NOM (Super NOM?) is going on behind the scenes.

“Who else was at this meeting? What’s the plan?

“If NOM isn’t effective enough to get the job done, then what is the point of NOM (and why march under the NOM umbrella)?

“But mostly: why is everything about this organization always so secretive and shady?!?”

Cordileone was last week urged by Californian politicians to cancel his plans to attend NOM’s anti-gay rally next month.