Archbishop Cordileone arrested for DWI

That’s what we call it here in Texas – Driving While Intoxicated, not Driving Under the Influence.  That’s a separate category for those stoned on non-alcoholic drugs.

Not good.  Archbishop Cordileone has already apologized, but man this is bad:

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who was appointed head of the San Francisco archdiocese on July 27 and is scheduled to be installed on October 4, has apologized for the “disgrace” caused by his August 25 arrest on drunk-driving charges.

“While visiting in San Diego this past weekend, I had dinner at the home of some friends along with a priest friend visiting from outside the country and my mother, who lives near San Diego State University,” he said. “While driving my mother home, I passed through a DUI checkpoint the police had set up near the SDSU campus before I reached her home, and was found to be over the California legal blood alcohol level.”

“I apologize for my error in judgment and feel shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself,” he continued. “I will repay my debt to society and I ask forgiveness from my family and my friends and co-workers at the Diocese of Oakland and the Archdiocese of San Francisco. I pray that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this.”

There but for the Grace of God could of gone I on about 2000 occasions.   In fact, I got lucky on a half dozen or more occasions – one of the benefits of being able to hide my intoxication too well.  And I might argue with the arbitrary and very low BAC levels that now cause criminal offense in this country, the fruit of a certain hysteria whipped up in the 80s by groups of mad mothers.  There is a huge difference between blowing a .08 after 3 glasses of wine and a .28 after a hard night (or day!) of drinking.  Still, one in the kind of position Archbishop Cordileone is in should know better.

Pray for your bishop and all the bishops you know of!  Yes, the crisis in the Church today is one that starts at the top, and our episcopal leadership has seemingly let us down on myriad occasions, but that is just all the more reason to pray for your bishop and others.  We desperately need men of heroic virtue in the episcopate.  I pray this is just a one off, accidental event for Archbishop Cordileone and not the sign of a larger problem.

Meanwhile, almost a year later, El Paso still waits.