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On April 17, 2015, 100 prominent Roman Catholic donors and church members signed a full-page advertisement in The San francisco Chronicle calling on Pope Francis to replace San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for promoting “an atmosphere of division and intolerance.” The appeal comes after months of dissent over Cordileone’s insistence on traditional, conservative church doctrine, including requesting high school teachers and staffers at Catholic schools to sign a morality clause that characterizes sex outside of marriage and homosexual relations as “gravely evil.” In their open letter to the pope, the letter's signatories argue that his morality-clause requirement is mean-spirited and “sets a pastoral tone that is closer to persecution than evangelization.” 

I am not a Roman Catholic, but it is well-known that the Catholic Church is against, among other things, same-sex marriage, abortion, and homosexuality. Archbishop Cordileone is merely enforcing well-established church doctrine albeit in a mean-spirited manner. Pope Francis espouses the same tenets but in a nice, friendly way.  

As a result, everyone loves Pope Francis, but too many loath Archbishop Cordileone. Perhaps the Archbishop needs some lessons in niceness. If members of the Roman Catholic Church do not agree with the tenets of Catholicism and find relevance in an organized religion, perhaps they should look elsewhere for spiritual guidance until the Roman Catholic church changes. But you and I know this is unlikely.