SAN DIEGO (CNN) – The newly-appointed archbishop of San Francisco apologized Monday after being arrested Saturday in San Diego on an allegation of driving under the influence.
Salvatore Cordileone, who is to be installed in St. Mary’s Cathedral in October, is well-known as a conservative on social issues and was a vigorous supporter of Proposition 8, the voter-approved measure to ban same-sex marriage in California.
“I apologize for my error in judgment and feel shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the church and myself,” Cordileone said in a written statement.
“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.”
Cordileone was stopped at a routine DUI checkpoint, according to Lt. Gary Hassen of the San Diego police.
“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,” according to Cordileone. “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.”
The state’s legal limit is .08 percent.
Cordileone was bailed out of the San Diego County jail Sunday morning, Hassen said. The officer did not know who posted the $2,500 bond.
July 27, Pope Benedict named Cordileone the new metropolitan archbishop of San Francisco.
Cordileone, who had served as bishop of Oakland since May 2009, was appointed after the resignation of Archbishop George H. Niederauer, 76, according to the Web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
