Archbishop Cordileone Targeted by Gay Activist Billionaires

What appeared as a grassroots protests actually is an orchestrated, well-funded campaign.

In June, prominent cultural liberals, including House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, urged a high-ranking Catholic prelate to withdraw from a planned speaking engagement—the march for traditional marriage on the south lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

Now that prelate, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, is redirecting criticism at his opponents.

In Catholic San Francisco, the weekly newspaper of the archdiocese, reporter Valerie Schmalz writes that the protest was less an outpouring of grassroots anger than an orchestrated campaign of two homosexual philanthropists:

Faithful America, which organized the letter from political leaders including California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and an online petition, describes itself as a grassroots citizens’ organization.

However, Faithful America exists almost entirely online and counts its members by those who sign its online petitions. It has received funding from the nation’s two top gay political philanthropists, the founder of software publisher Quark Inc., Colorado’s Tim Gill, and Michigan medical technology company heir, billionaire Jon Stryker. Both men’s foundations, the Gill Foundation and the Arcus Foundation, were created primarily to promote acceptance of homosexuality. Both men have also contributed millions to candidates and organizations who advocate homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

Following up on the story, Breitbart News reports that Gill and Stryker’s donations have been large in both size and scope:

Prior to the 2012 election,
Stryker had given over $250 million to groups supporting gay rights, transgenderism, and the conservation of apes. In January of that year, his Arcus Foundation donated $23 million to Kalamazoo College for an endowment to fund a center for social justice leadership.

In March, Stryker’s Arcus Foundation
announced a grant of $75,000 to Faithful America.

The Gill Foundation partially funded the National Park Service’s recently-launched “LGBT Heritage Theme Study,” which purports to highlight the historical achievements of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. The initiative, according to the Washington Examiner, “could lead to the naming of new LGBT historical places, the installation of history-noting plaques and even park rangers telling the stories of ground-breaking gays.”

Archbishop Cordileone is the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subcommittee for the promotion and defense of marriage. Catholic San Francisco said it will publish three stories on the campaign of gay rights groups to seek to pressure the archbishop to mute his support for traditional marriage.

Mark Stricherz is based in Washington. He is author of Why the Democrats are Blue.