The head of the Catholic Church in
San Francisco, who supported the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008, is retiring
in June.
Archbishop George Niederauer told
the San Francisco Chronicle in an
interview published Thursday, April 21 that he'll submit his resignation letter
June 14, his 75th birthday.
"It doesn't happen right
away, it can take a year and a half," Niederauer told the paper.
In the months leading up to the
November 2008 election, when the state's voters passed the same-sex marriage
ban, Niederauer had asked leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints to become involved in it.
Mormons are believed to have
eventually contributed millions of dollars to the campaign to pass Prop 8.
The
Mormon Church's leadership was key in getting the measure passed, according to
many analyses of the campaign. Niederauer had served as the Catholic bishop of
Salt Lake City prior to coming to San Francisco, and had developed close ties
with Mormon leaders.
Matt Dorsey, a gay man who's been
on the parish council of San Francisco's Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church,
wrote in a 2009 Bay Area Reporter op-ed
piece that the San Francisco Archdiocese had produced and distributed campaign
fliers to local parishes and schools, acknowledged as having been "Paid
for by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco," misleading people
that supporting Prop 8 would secure parental rights to teach children about
marriage.
Dorsey also noted that Niederauer
had voiced opposition to same-sex marriage in a video that appeared on the
anti-gay website http://www.marriagematterstokids.org.
"I think people of faith can
disagree about marriage equality, but I don't think we disagree that bearing
false witness is wrong, and it's no less wrong when an archdiocese does it, so
I hope ... it will apologize for it, or at least disavow it, which [Niederauer]
still has never done," Dorsey said in an interview around that time.
Asked about Niederauer's
retirement, Molly McKay, media director for Marriage Equality USA, said she
isn't Catholic, but, "There are so many supportive people within the
Catholic faith that support marriage equality, and the polling shows that, so
you hope at some point that will have a trickle-up effect of the leadership of
the Catholic Church."
She added, "Especially in San
Francisco, there are so many practicing gay and lesbian couples with
children," one would hope "that at some point the Catholic Church
will reevaluate its opposition to supporting same-sex couples."