Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom to campaign against Prop. 8

San Francisco, Calif., Sep 6, 2008 / 06:04 am

Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco and a self-described Catholic, will join a political campaign against Proposition 8, a California initiative that both would overturn the May 15 California Supreme Court decision mandating same-sex marriage and would reinstate marriage between only a man and a woman.

Newsom will help launch the “No on 8 – Equality for All Campaign” today at the old Tower Records building in San Francisco, the California Catholic Daily reports.

In 2004, Newsom provoked a constitutional crisis in the state by granting marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples in a case that led to the 2008 California Supreme Court ruling. In 2006 he cancelled a trip to Rome for the installation of former San Francisco Archbishop William Levada as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the stated reason that he was protesting the Church’s opposition to homosexuals’ adoption of children.

The Catholic bishops of California have officially endorsed Proposition 8 and have urged Catholics to support it. The California Catholic Conference on its web site provides sample prayers, homilies, teaching documents, and bulletin inserts supporting the initiative.

CNA contacted the California Catholic Conference for further comment on its plans to promote Proposition 8, but did not receive a reply by press time.