The Roman Catholic Church

Nearly Two-Thirds of American Catholics Support Gay Marriage, Poll Shows

The Catholic Church has long had a reputation for its socially conservative doctrines. This tradition, though, has apparently not kept pace with the beliefs of its American followers, particularly when it comes to gay marriage. According to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 62 percent of Americ ... More >>

S.F. Filmmaker Uses Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to Highlight Italy's Stonewall

In 1998, a gay writer named Alfredo Ormando knelt in St. Peter's Square and lit himself on fire. His self-immolation was a protest against the Church's strict stance against gay marriage and homosexuality in general. Now, over a decade after Ormando's death, the Pope is resigning in the midst of t ... More >>

"Mea Maxima Culpa": Those Who Prey

Salvatore Cordileone: Gay Rights Advocates Will Protest Archbishop-Elect Installation Mass

Next Thursday, Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone will be installed as the San Francisco Archdiocese's Archbishop. Over the course of his career -- which began at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Calexico, a border town 122 miles east of San Diego, with a population that's 97 percent Latino -- Cord ... More >>

Salvadore Cordileone, Archbishop-Elect Busted for DUI, Prays God Will Help Him

Salvadore Cordileone, Archbishop-elect of the San Franicisco archdiocese who was arrested on suspicion of DUI over the weekend, was driving his mother and some friends home when he reached a sobriety checkpoint near San Diego State University. He was one a 11 people were arrested on suspicion of dru ... More >>

Salvatore Cordileone, San Francisco's New Archbishop, Helped Create Prop. 8

The Vatican today named Salvatore Cordileone, one of the creators of California's notorious Proposition 8, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, a jurisdiction that spans from Hawaii to Salt Lake City, Utah. Cordileone, bishop of the Oakland Diocese since 2009, will replace ... More >>

'Others Day

"We Have a Pope": Fearful New Pope Questions Catholicism

Irish Song Lyrics Rule: 10 Great Lines From Irish Musicians

We'll leave the debates over why the Irish are such champions of the written word -- Is it the island's strong oral traditions surrounding the seanchai, or storyteller? The rich vein of Celtic folklore? The really awesome beer? -- to folks who are much smarter and more sober. The Irish count four No ... More >>

SF Archdiocese Calls SF Weekly Mother Teresa Story a 'Dark Day for Journalism'

Photo courtesy Tyrone CefaluMother Teresa, pictured with Donald McGuire​We've been getting quite a range of reaction to yesterday's cover story on Mother Teresa's links to convicted pedophile priest Donald McGuire. Documents obtained by SF Weekly indicate that the "Saint of Calcutta" might have ur ... More >>

Tainted Saint: Mother Teresa Defended Pedophile Priest

Did Mother Teresa Protect a Pedophile Priest?

Patron saint of predators?​That's the subject of the latest SF Weekly cover story, which examines Jesuit records suggesting that Mother Teresa of Calcutta, founder of the international Missionaries of Charity order and winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, asked Catholic Church officials to overlo ... More >>

Sex Abuse Victims Seek International Criminal Court Charges Against Former SF Archbishop

Cardinal William Levada​Victims of clergy sex abuse have named a top Vatican official with roots in San Francisco as part of a small group of Catholic Church officials who should be investigated for crimes against humanity in a formal complaint lodged this week with the International Criminal Cour ... More >>

Peninsula Priest Held in 'Private' S.F. Location As Abuse Investigation Moves Forward

​A Menlo Park priest placed on leave following improper conduct with a 17-year-old parishioner has been relocated to a "private" location in San Francisco while an internal investigation of the incident moves forward, according to the Archdiocese of San Francisco.Father William Meyers, pastor of S ... More >>

Top Five Reasons to Hate Bono (Other Than That Stupid Spider-Man Musical)

It was impossible to know, back when Rattle and Hum or The Joshua Tree came out, what Bono would one day turn into. He's been making it incredibly difficult to like him for about 15 years now, but -- woomp, there it is -- he just found a way to put a cherry on top of all that annoying behavior: He a ... More >>

Vow of Silence: List of Priests Who Knew and Said Nothing

Let Him Prey: High-Ranking Jesuits Helped Keep Pedophile Priest Hidden

Follow the Paper Trail: Who Knew the Secrets of Pedophile Priest Donald McGuire?

​In this week's cover story, SF Weekly takes a look at the voluminous paper trail left behind by Donald McGuire, the defrocked Jesuit priest who is currently serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for transporting minors across state lines to sexually abuse them.Since he was a member of th ... More >>

Supreme Court: S.F. Politicians Free to Denounce Catholic Church

Heresy: The business of S.F. government?​The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a lawsuit brought by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, essentially settling the question of whether the supervisors were out of line when they passed ... More >>

Charlie Sheen's S.F. 'Torpedo of Truth' Show: Top 5 Things Most Likely to Happen

​If you're anything like us, Dear Reader, you've been following the messianic rumblings of The Odyssey That Is Charlie Sheen with some interest. Who better than this self-described "High Priest Vatican Assassin Warlock" to lead the ranks of us feeble, workaday souls against the army of fools and t ... More >>

Devo Discusses the Pope, the Hipster Press, and the World's Slow Descent into Shittiness

Submit to Devo.​After emerging from Ohio more than thirty years ago, Devo has been blowing minds pretty much ever since, with irreverent, surrealist, social-critiques-as-wacky-songs. We caught up with one of the band's co-founders, Jerry Casale, before its show this Friday at The Warfield, to talk ... More >>

Top 5 Songs Charlie Sheen Is Probably Listening To Right Now

So this was the week that Charlie Sheen went on an extensive media tour to prove to the world that he was a "Vatican Assassin Warlock" -- which, according to our dictionary, means "gigantic mentalist." He has also announced to the world that he's "tired of pretending like [he's] not special." Well, ... More >>

Charlie Sheen Praises Brian Wilson in Unhinged Radio Rant

'Vatican assasin warlock' Charlie Sheen​We wrote earlier this week about a totally awesome play date that took place at bad-boy actor Charlie Sheen's house with San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson and some other baseball greats.Well, some more information on the bromance between these two cel ... More >>

Shock and Awe

New York Times Prints Hallucinogenic Paean to Mission Hipster Chicks

​If you thumbed through yesterday's edition of The New York Times, you may have chanced across a 1,500-word essay on the fashion of San Francisco. It's always fun and a little maddening to see what the Gray Lady makes of Bay Area culture, and this latest offering is worth a read -- if for no other ... More >>

Saving the River and the Woods

List: Proposition 8 backers' new strategies

Kamala Harris Takes A Stand on Internet Pedophiles, Coddles Pedophile Catholic Priests

As long as the pedophile is online, Kamala Harris is there to protect you​Matt Smith's column this week revealed how District Attorney Kamala Harris is essentially protecting Catholic pedophiles in her refusal to turn over the San Francisco Archdiocese files on clergy abuse. Oddly, she's also come ... More >>

A Secrecy Fetish

District Attorney Kamala Harris is going too far in protecting Catholic pedophiles.

Ex-S.F. Arhcbishop Given 10-1 Odds Becoming Next Pope

What are the odds?​The Irish bookie site Paddypower is laying down 3-to-1 odds Pope Benedict XVI  will be ousted over accusations that he was behind misdeeds such as helping shield a priest who purportedly raped hundreds of deaf boys. But when God shuts a door, he opens a window -- and if a P ... More >>

S.F. Assessor Phil Ting Takes on the Catholic Church Tomorrow Morning

Nobody expects Phil Ting!Tomorrow morning, assessor Phil Ting will be arguing in front of the San Francisco Appeals Board that the Catholic Church owes San Francisco up to $15 million in transfer taxes -- one of the largest tax bills in the city's history. The hearing will be held at 1 South Van Nes ... More >>

Arcade Fire

J'Accuse!

Doubt wags the finger of moral relativism.

Boston Marriage

We Can Kick the Pope Around Next Year, Maybe

The Reformation of Matthew Fox

Against the odds, an Oakland theologian -- most famous as a critic of Pope Benedict XVI -- takes his inclusive notion of Christianity global

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Cardinal Opportunity

A visit with Honduran Cardinal Rodriguez, who is often mentioned as a contender to become the next pope. For good reason.

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Zipped Up

S.F. Archbishop William Levada doesn't want the public to know about decades of alleged sexual misconduct by his clerics. But why are district attorneys in San Mateo, Marin, and San Francisco helping him keep secrets?

Habitat for Inhumanity

The "asylums" depicted in The Magdalene Sisters undermine both the Catholic Church and the popular image of Ireland

Nailed?

Lawyers for hundreds of sex-abuse victims have California's Catholic dioceses in a dire financial bind. Can church leaders finagle an escape, or are they ...

'Scuse Us, Folks

Sex-abuse victims may be no-shows at Archbishop Levada's upcoming public apology to them.

See No Evil

S.F. Archbishop William Levada styles himself as a leading advocate for openness among Catholic leaders on the clergy sex-abuse issue. So why doesn't he practice what he preaches?

Un-Orthodox Behavior

Catholicism isn't the only religion with sexual abuse scandals. Three S.F. women are working to expose cases within the Orthodox Church.

The Affordable Housing Disaster

How a cozy alliance of government bureaucrats and nonprofit developers spends tens of millions of dollars building almost no housing for the poor

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

Singapore Slingshot

Night+Day

After the Fall

A wayward soul marches through temptation in Priest; Risk stumbles on the road to romance