Advocates for marriage equality in California now have another prominent religious official acting as an obstacle:

Salvatore Cordileone, the Roman Catholic bishop of Oakland who was recently named archbishop-elect of San Francisco by Pope Benedict XVI, is an especially loud anti-equality voice in the Catholic community, too.

Neal Broverman of The Advocate writes:

Cordileone not only helped get the 2008 proposition that snatched marriage rights away from gay Californians on the ballot, he currently heads a subcommittee for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that is tasked with denying marriage equality. … Cordileone raised millions for Prop. 8, gathered a religious army to vote in droves for the measure, and led a rally in San Diego against gay marriage that included people who try to “convert” gay people straight. After Prop. 8 narrowly passed, Cordileone was quoted as saying, “the ultimate attack of the Evil One is the attack on marriage.”

For those of us who are sick of religious arguments against equal rights, perhaps the best summary of the situation comes from a sarcastic commenter named Ethan:

I love that God’s most pressing concern, in the minds of many people, is determining who gets to trade rings with whom.



