08/20/25

Dear Fr. Josiah Trenham:

I am writing this letter regarding the upcoming event that you are organizing titled “Marriage: Bedrock of Civilization” which will feature as a speaker Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco. As a cradle Catholic (now Orthodox) and native San Franciscan, I know a little about the Archbishop and the Archdiocese of San Francisco. First, of the 12 Roman Catholic dioceses in California, San Francisco remains the only diocese that has not released an internal list of priests suspected of sexually abusing minors. Just this year, once again, survivors have asked Archbishop Cordileone to do so. He has steadfastly refused. But why is this important? I’ll use an example from my own life; in the diocese I currently reside, the diocese neglected to include an accused priest on their public list; unbeknownst to me, when I was a practicing Catholic, I often came in contact with this priest – though there always seemed something odd about him. Later, when I’d already decided to leave Catholicism, years old accusations – for which the priest served jail-time, was finally made public. I felt re-victimized. Victims and survivors deserved to know about the history of this priest; I deserved to know; and most importantly – parents deserved to know. Here, a list of accused priests did not initially safeguard the public, but in terms of an organization with a long history of covering-up sexual abuse, it’s better than nothing. In San Francisco, there is literally nothing.

Second, Archbishop Cordileone has allowed homosexual priests and gay activists to openly deceive and confuse LGBT people within his diocese. For example, he has permitted:

How does any of this support the idea of marriage as the “bedrock of civilization?” LGBT people in the Archdiocese of San Francisco deserve to hear the truth. When I was living as a gay man in San Francisco, I deserved to hear the truth after I reached out to the Church for help. Since then, nothing has changed in San Francisco; and since the arrival of Archbishop Cordileone in 2012, I’ve saw the situation only get much worse.

Lastly, on a more individual level, the in-person interactions I’ve had with Archbishop Cordileone range from the dismissive to traumatizing. As a once faithful and devout Catholic, who honored the so-called “princes” of the Church, I found Archbishop Cordileone to be distant and cold. But I figured – that’s his personality. Until, he actually invited me to a meeting. Several years forehand, myself and a good friend began a sidewalk ministry in San Francisco; we often attended the various “pride” festivities and parades. There, we took big signs, gave-away thousands of rosaries, and passed-out information which declared Christ’s love for everyone – even for those who often felt distant from Christianity. During the process of this ministry, I became keenly aware of the situation in the Archdiocese of San Francisco – concerning its LGBT parishioners; my most charitable estimation is that openly gay and homosexual Catholic priests were encouraging individuals to embrace their same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria; probably the most egregious example, a MTF transgender person whose pastor encouraged their decision to undergo a sex-change operation. I began to write about what I was seeing and hearing. From someone, I knew who worked at the chancery, I learned that my writing got the Archbishop’s attention; apparently, after I published one of my articles, the phones at the chancery were turned off due to the volume of incoming calls. Then, probably after a couple of years trying to procure a meeting with the Archbishop, I received a message from his office. But, in the interim, the friend who I began this ministry alongside had already unexpectedly died. And I’d decided to leave Roman Catholicism. I hadn’t been to Church in about a year. I was fed-up. I’d sat down and talked with high-profile priests, bishops, archbishops, and even a cardinal. It was all pointless. I finally figured-out that the gay predation problem within Catholicism dated back to at least the time of Peter Damian; he was already writing about the issue when the West split from the rest of Christendom. He couldn’t do anything about it. Neither could I. A thousand years later, it has become deeply institutionalized. But in honor of my deceased friend, I agreed to meet with the Archbishop. As I had done before, with other more accessible prelates of the Church, I described the ongoing problem of LGBT affirmation in Roman Catholicism and the continuing issue of sexual predation, but (this time) specifically in his diocese. He sat completely stone-faced. I said to him: “My friend who really wanted to be here; who was the most devout Catholic I ever met, died while waiting to hear from you.” He asked me to leave the evidentiary material I brought with me. I refused. Because in the past, after I wrote an article, information on social media sites (associated with the Archdiocese of San Francisco or its parishes and employees) would immediately disappear or were scrubbed. Other than that, he had nothing to say to me. An apology would have been nice. Unconsciously, I think I’d been waiting for one since I was a kid. I’m not waiting anymore.

Fr. Josiah, you can invite whomever you want to your events; but if you choose to align yourself with the highly comprised hierarchy of Roman Catholicism, you should also be prepared to answer some difficult questions. Because they have a long history of obfuscation, hiding the truth, and protecting predators. For example, in California, 6 Catholic dioceses have declared bankruptcy; including San Francisco. But victim’s rights groups and legal analysts point out that the Catholic Church has misused bankruptcy laws in the US in order to hide assets and conceal evidence; the Archdiocese of San Francisco has been accused of doing exactly that; as well as Cordileone’s former diocese of Oakland which he led from 2009-2012.

But these are just minor details. Right? It’s sad, because at times those who are supposed to serve the faithful become increasingly distant from those they serve. That’s no more self-evident than in the absolute unwillingness of Archbishop Cordileone to release the names of accused priests. Because, I guess, the faithful don’t deserve to know. For a very long time, I was one of the Catholic faithful. And I remained dutiful and silent. Until I could no longer stand by and watch as the abuse and the cover-ups continued. Only, it often seemed liked speaking-out had a minimal effect. Because so many were willing to look the other way with regards to the crimes and continued corruption within the Catholic Church. Looking back, in the Catholic Church, so much evil was perpetrated, because otherwise good people said and did nothing.

Cordially:

Joseph Sciambra

[Updated: Archbishop Cordileone (at least twice) allowed Catholic priests accused of child molestation to remain in active ministry. How many other credibly accused priests in San Francisco still have access to children? We don’t know. Because unlike every other Roman Catholic diocese in California, Archbishop Cordileone never made that information public.] 09/20/25