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SAN FRANCISCO, May 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) — Hundreds of faithful Catholics showed up in San Francisco Saturday at an event in support of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.
Games, children’s activities, and live entertainment were all part of the Archbishop Cordileone Support Day Family Picnic that took place at a park near San Francisco Bay.
“Our courageous Archbishop has made news nationwide for his effort to keep San Francisco’s Catholic schools Catholic,” San Francisco resident Eva Muntean said of the event on the website sfcatholics.org. “For properly fulfilling his responsibilities he has come under targeted, coordinated attacks from activists, politicians and the media. Here’s your chance to show His Excellency we stand with him and with our Church.”
Saturday’s event was organized by Muntean, who also set up a new website for supporting the archbishop. She says she thinks that many local Catholics feel their support of the archbishop isn’t being heard with all of the other attacks on him in the media.
Attendees were encouraged to wear blue to the picnic to show solidarity, guest books were available for written messages, and videographers were there to record live personalized messages of support to the archbishop. The group had also placed an ad in the Chronicle to invite supporters of the archbishop a few days in advance of the event.
Archbishop Cordileone has been the focus of an anti-Catholic onslaught in the media for months due to his efforts to reinforce Catholic identity and principles in the San Francisco archdiocese’s high schools.
The archbishop’s detractors are unhappy with the previously long-established expectation that faculty and staff at Catholic high schools not publicly violate Church teaching on homosexual “marriage,” abortion, contraception, and in vitro fertilization.
People at the picnic commended the archbishop for doing his job.
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“We support Archbishop Cordileone in his efforts to reaffirm authentic Catholicism in the schools as taught by the teachers and represented by the teachers,” said Joni Durling, 46, a lifelong Catholic and mother of six children. “This is in no way shape or form a witch hunt.”
“When a school says it’s Catholic, that should mean something,” said Daniella Hill, 17, a high school junior who previously attended Catholic schools.
The archbishop did not address the crowd, a KRON 4 news report said, rather he posed for pictures with people, gave a blessing and expressed gratitude.
“I’m just here to thank my supporters,” Archbishop Cordileone said, declining further comment.
“He’s like a rock star,” Muntean said, as the archbishop made his way through the crowd who came to support him.
Another Catholic, Adele Lindberg, 59, said she wanted to back the archbishop because she feels he’s being demonized for being faithful to Church doctrine.
“Nobody’s saying you have to be Catholic or that you have to send your children to school,” she said. “But don’t change something that has stood for more than 2,000 years just to meet your agenda.”
