S.F. city attorney argues against archbishop’s morality clauses

City Attorney Dennis Herrera opposes Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s morality clauses. City Attorney Dennis Herrera opposes Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s morality clauses. Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close S.F. city attorney argues against archbishop’s morality clauses 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, seldom one to stand back from a scrap, has blasted his local archbishop’s attempt to insert strict morality clauses into rules governing Catholic high school teachers.

In an essay published Friday in the National Catholic Reporter, Herrera called Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s set of proposed mandates “a chilling directive” that has no place in modern society and serves only to make the job of Catholic parents like him harder as they try to instill good religious values in their kids.

These good values, he said, emphatically do not include Cordileone’s attempt to order teachers to refrain from what the archbishop calls the “gravely evil” acts of fornication, masturbation, homosexual relations and watching pornography by adding clauses to their handbooks. The good values instead include appreciating recent history’s “laudable progress in civil rights, in science, and in how a more just society views and better affirms the dignity of nontraditional families and once-reviled minorities,” Herrera wrote.

The city attorney had no official reason to wade into the fight between the archbishop and the parents, students and teachers of the San Francisco Archdiocese’s high schools because it doesn’t involve his office — and he made sure to point out his opinion was solely his own. But he said he couldn’t resist the urge as a man who was raised Catholic, attended Catholic schools and is now, with his Catholic-raised wife, making sure his son “has the benefit of a well-formed Catholic conscience.”

There’s no big surprise in Herrera’s stance, considering he enthusiastically fought as city attorney for same-sex marriage rights. But what is a surprise is the opportunity to hear him speak from a very personal perspective, free from having to represent his title.

Asked if he felt heinous as a man who has officially and unofficially promoted ideals so contrary to Cordileone’s moral code, Herrera paused for a moment while he carefully picked his words.

“Let’s just say I know I’m not gravely evil,” he said.

The archdiocese had no comment on Herrera’s essay — but it did have something to say Friday to the Archdiocesan Federation of Teachers: It rejected the union’s latest attempt to knock aside the morality clauses in its contract talks.

— Kevin Fagan

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