Mayor’s remarks cause ‘dismay’
A Dec. 11 letter from the San Francisco Interfaith Council Board of Directors to its members expresses “dismay” that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had used the Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Breakfast on Nov. 25 to vent “his displeasure with some members of the religious community for their support of Proposition 8 in the Nov. 4 election.”
During a Dec. 4 meeting, the letter said, the SFIC board members discussed disappointment that the mayor had “used this occasion to express his frustration with those who supported Proposition 8 rather than to honor the efforts of the religious community in alleviating the suffering of the hungry and poor in our city.”
“We had no idea or warning that the mayor would make these remarks,” the letter stated. “While some of us can understand his frustration and all of us support his right to express it, we regret that Mayor Newsom chose this occasion….,” the directors’ letter said, adding: “Many were deeply offended and hurt and for that we sincerely apologize.” Passage of Prop 8 on Nov. 4 amended the California constitution to establish “marriage as the exclusive right of opposite gender couples,” the SFIC letter noted.
The letter concludes with an invitation to the mayor “and to those who disagree with him on Proposition 8” to enter into dialogue.
SFIC chair, the Rev. James DeLange, told Catholic San Francisco on Dec. 13 that a formal invitation to the mayor or others had not been formally issued but that “a committee is being formed to work on it.”
“We felt a responsibility to first communicate with our own constituency,” he said, “but we do plan to reach out to the mayor” and to work toward establishing “a safe place where people with opposing views can come together.”
Where, when or in what format that dialogue might take place are yet to be determined, DeLange said.
In the letter, the SFIC directors wrote, “Our mission is to provide a safe place where religious people can sit at the table and freely air their differences.”
During his Nov. 25 prayer breakfast remarks to about 400 at the Cathedral Hill Hotel, the mayor highlighted the role of the Catholic Church in his criticism of the passage of Prop 8. At one point the talk was greeted with a standing ovation by a majority of those present.
Maurice Healy, director of the Archdiocese’s Department of Communications and Outreach, attended the breakfast. He called the mayor’s speech “an intemperate attack on those religions and people of faith who supported Proposition 8.”
“The mayor said those who supported the initiative sought to deny rights to others. He did not give any respect for people holding religious beliefs about the nature of marriage,” Healy said.
DeLange and SFIC vice chair Rita Semel co-signed a letter to San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer shortly after the prayer breakfast in which they conveyed regret over the mayor’s remarks.
In response, DeLange said, the Archbishop had sent them a letter assuring them of “his continuing commitment to the work of the Interfaith Council.”
Both DeLange and Semel told Catholic San Francisco they opposed Proposition 8, but that the Interfaith Council was dedicated to “the need to dialogue more than ever before,” in the words of Semel.
SFIC Executive Director Michael Pappas echoed the SFIC board’s concerns. Seated at the same table as Archbishop Niederauer during the breakfast, Pappas said his “heart sank” when the mayor’s remarks strayed “from what we had worked so hard to highlight – the good works of those agencies” providing sustained outreach to the hungry “especially in this kind of economy where budgets are being cut.”
“My hope was that the mayor would have stayed on message,” Pappas said. Local media have quoted some government officials who attended the breakfast as strongly supporting Newsom’s speech, notably state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Duffy.
Requests to the mayor’s office for comment were not acknowledged as of press deadline Dec. 16.
(By Dan Morris-Young)
