Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, JCD, is the Metropolitan Archbishop of of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. On March 23, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Cordileone as the fourth Bishop of Oakland. His Mass of Installation was celebrated on May 5, 2009 at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland. Three years later, on July 27, 2012, he was appointed the Archbishop of San Francisco and was installed on October 4, 2012, in the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption.
He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of San Diego. He was accepted to study in Rome and continued in the seminary at the Pontifical North American College. He received an undergraduate degree in Sacred Theology in 1981 from the Pontifical Gregorian University and the following year, he returned to San Diego to be ordained and begin his first pastoral assignment. On July 9, 1982, Bishop Leo T. Maher ordained the Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone. Soon thereafter, he became associate pastor at St. Martin of Tours Parish in La Mesa, where he remained for three years. In 1985 he was again sent to Rome, this time to study the new Code of Canon Law. He spent the next four years again at the Gregorian University completing his doctoral degree in canon law.
Upon Father Cordileone’s return to San Diego in 1989, he became secretary to Coadjutor Bishop Robert Brom, and a year later became adjunct judicial vicar. Pastoral work called to him again in 1991 and he became pastor of Calexico’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, four blocks from the Mexican border. In 1995 he was called to Rome and for the next seven years served as assistant at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest canonical court.
On July 5, 2002, Pope John Paul II appointed then-Monsignor Cordileone as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego. He was ordained a bishop on August 21, 2002 by Bishop Brom. In addition to serving on the various consultative bodies of the diocese during his years as auxiliary of San Diego, Bishop Cordileone also chaired the Corporate Board of Catholic Charities and was a member of the University of San Diego Board of Trustees, serving on its Academic Affairs and Mission and Vision Committees.
Archbishop Cordileone serves as Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth and is also a member of the Administrative Committee of the USCCB and a member of the Committee for Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. He was formerly chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, and was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. The Archbishop serves on a number of boards, including Catholic Benefits Association/Catholic Insurance Company, Cross Catholic Outreach, and the Governing Board of the International Theological Institute, in Trumau, Austria.
