‘The most important thing we do is worship God,’ the shepherd of San Francisco said on a recent episode of Napa Institute’s podcast.
In an era marked by cultural fracture and secularization, few American prelates have stood out in the public square as much as Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco.
Raised in San Diego in a hard-working Sicilian commercial-fishing family, the shepherd’s faith was forged in the practical, daily rhythm of hard work, family time and parish life — an upbringing that taught him that faith is “just the air we breathed at home.”
That grounded, unflinching formation would later define his episcopacy during some of the most tumultuous moments in recent Church history. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when city restrictions severely curtailed religious gatherings, Archbishop Cordileone emerged as a champion for the constitutional and spiritual rights of the faithful, famously organizing “Free the Mass”’ rallies to demand that indoor worship be treated with the same dignity and access as commercial activities.
When violent protests swept through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, resulting in the destruction of a public statue of St. Junípero Serra, the archbishop did not merely issue press statements — he walked the grounds of
