Archbishop Cordileone ventured from his palace today

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone is the Pope's point man on marriage inequality. His official title is Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. Indeed, Cordileone was one of the architects of Proposition 8. Some say that his elevation to Bishop of Oakland in March of 2009 was, at least in part, his reward for preventing same-sex marriage recognition in California. The Archbishop, by the way, is not only very conservative. He is very ambitious.

Yesterday, Cordileone reacted to the latest federal court ruling striking down DOMA saying that it is "unjust and a great disappointment." He concludes (emphasis added):

Marriage is the only institution whereby a man and a woman unite for life and are united to any child born from their union, The public good demands that the unique meaning and purpose of marriage be respected in law and society, not rejected as beyond the constitutional pale. Redefining marriage never upholds the equal dignity of individuals because it contradicts basic human rights.

Cordileone needs to bone up on the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution. Once we get past that, the idea that men and women are uniting for life is absurd - given the current divorce rate of so-called "traditional" marriages. Beyond that, this is gibberish! None of this actually makes any sense. The problem with these guys is that they are insulated from criticism. What Cordileone is not insulated from are people who bow and scrape while telling him how important he is.

The purpose of marriage "for thousands of years" has been to create a marital estate. These men are creating various definitions of marriage that correlate to a political enterprise. The Pope and his bishops are obsessed with gay marriage.

These bishops seem to think that they are still powerful 16th century nobility.

It's time that we stopped treating them as such.