San Francisco Catholic Archbishop George Niederauer, in his first extensive explanation about his role in the passage of Proposition 8, on Wednesday defended the church's actions in the successful ballot initiative. "Religious leaders in America have the constitutional right to speak out on issues of public policy," Niederauer wrote in a statement posted on the archdiocese's Web site.
"Catholic bishops, specifically, also have a responsibility to teach the faith, and our beliefs about marriage and family are part of this faith."
Niederauer, who has declined interview requests, wrote that "to insist that citizens be silent about their religious beliefs" would have had a detrimental effect on history, gagging the voices of important abolitionists and people in the civil rights movement.
Niederauer's statement, coming more than a month after the vote to ban same-sex marriage in the nation's most populous state, underscored the complex role he plays.
As archbishop of San Francisco, Niederauer is the ultimate teacher of Catholic doctrine in a region at the forefront of gay and lesbian rights.
During the campaign, Niederauer issued statements, sent flyers and gave a videotaped interview posted at www.marriagematterstokids.org.
But Niederauer's most prominent action was drawing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members responded with intensive grassroots organizing and an estimated $20 million in campaign contributions from individuals that accounted for half of the Yes on 8 campaign's total.
Niederauer noted that many other Christian denominations supported Prop. 8, including evangelical Protestant, Orthodox and historically African American churches.
The Mormon church has said Niederauer, previously the bishop of Salt Lake City for 11 years, played a pivotal role in its joining the cause.
"We were invited to join the coalition," Michael Otterson, managing director of public affairs for the church, told The Chronicle in an interview shortly after the election. "We didn't unilaterally go into the battle."
Otterson said Niederauer's letter persuaded the Mormon church that they wouldn't be fighting this battle alone, a status that would have made them vulnerable.
"Having Catholics, evangelicals and Jews in a coalition was exactly the right way to do it," Otterson said. "We knew someone would make this a Mormon-versus-gays battle."
In his statement Wednesday, titled "Moving forward together," Niederauer urged both sides to tone down the rhetoric and move toward a common cause.
"Tolerance, respect and trust are always two-way streets and tolerance, respect and trust often do not include agreement, or even approval," he wrote. "We need to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. ... We need to stop hurling names like 'bigot' and 'pervert' at each other. And we need to stop it now.
"We churchgoers need to speak and act out of the truth that all people are God's children and are unconditionally loved by God," he wrote.
Kevin Sullivan, a gay parishioner at St. Dominic's in the Fillmore district, found Niederauer's letter to be "very condescending" and said the archdiocese deserves the moniker of being bigoted.
"The actions of our archdiocese and this archbishop in no way spoke of tolerance, respect and trust toward gay Catholics," said Sullivan, 50. "It will take the gay community a very long time to forgive our archdiocese for this."
The Rev. Donal Godfrey, who profiled a largely gay Castro district parish in the book "Gays and Grays" and is executive director for university ministry at the University of San Francisco, took Niederauer's statement as an affirmation that all views are welcome and encouraged in the archdiocese.
"Archbishop Niederauer is a pastoral, caring and intelligent man," said Godfrey, adding that most Catholics he knew opposed Prop. 8. "He knows Catholics disagree in good conscience. By saying this, he's saying (he) won't judge their motives."
Bill May, chairman of Catholics for the Common Good, who helped coordinate statewide Catholic support for the measure, appreciated that Niederauer took time to explain that there are "strong and legitimate reasons for supporting marriage between a man and a woman."
May also echoed Godfrey's praise.
Niederauer "is a very loving person," May said. "He expresses the teachings of the church in a very pastoral way. He is expressing the fundamental understanding of the Catholic Church that every human person has intrinsic dignity that must be respected."
To read the full text of Archbishop Niederauer's statement, go to: www.sfarchdiocese.org/about-us/news/?i=1505
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