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Published: April 24, 2009

Will he get the Catholic vote?

San Francisco’s self-described ‘Catholic’ mayor, who has long history of openly defying Church teachings, says he’s running for governor

Gavin Newsom, the divorced San Francisco mayor who provoked a constitutional crisis in 2004 by granting marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples, has made it official: he is running for governor in the 2010 elections.

Newsom, 41, a graduate of Santa Clara University who has described himself as a “lifelong Catholic,” chose to use a YouTube video, Facebook and Twitter to make the announcement on Tuesday. In the YouTube video, Newsom says, “I'm a candidate for governor of California because I know we can do better."

Newsom’s 2004 decision to grant marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples in San Francisco eventually led to the May 15, 2008 California Supreme Court decision declaring the state’s prohibition of same-sex marriages unconstitutional. That 4-3 ruling was later overturned by California voters in November 2008 with the passage of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment reserving marriage in the state to between one man and one woman. Proposition 8 is currently under review by the state’s highest court, with a decision expected by June.

Newsom, a Democrat, has regularly crossed swords with the Church, but continues to describe himself as a Catholic. Newsom openly defied California’s bishops by vigorously campaigning against Proposition 8 after the bishops officially endorsed the measure and urged Catholics to support it.

In 2006, Newsom abruptly cancelled a trip to Rome for the installation of former San Francisco Archbishop William Levada as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Newsom said at the time that he decided to boycott Levada’s installation in protest over the Church’s prohibition on homosexuals adopting children. "The idea, the principle that two loving parents of the same sex can't be great parents and that this church is now going to start attacking gay adoptions in this country and around the world was really disconcerting," Newsom told the San Francisco Sentinel at the time.

In 2007, Newsom scandalized even ultra-liberal San Francisco when he confessed to an affair with the wife of one of his closest and most trusted aides. Newsom admitted to a brief sexual fling with the wife of Alex Tourk, who at the time was manager of Newsom’s re-election campaign and previously a trusted member of the Newsom administration. Newsom said he had a drinking problem and that the affair occurred while he was undergoing a divorce from his first wife. Tourk resigned; Newsom entered a rehabilitation program.

On Feb. 23, 2007, Newsom issued the following proclamation: "Be it resolved that I, Gavin Newsom, Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco, congratulate Colt Studios on the occasion of their 40th anniversary and proclaim February 23, 2007, as Colt Studio Day in San Francisco!" Colt Studios is one of the largest purveyors of hardcore homosexual pornography in the world. Colt’s web site lures visitors by telling them to "come inside to experience the hottest man-on-man action."

Newsom also issued a proclamation welcoming the 2007 Folsom Street Fair, whose publicity mocked Christianity by lampooning the Last Supper. The publicity poster, which created a national outcry, showed Jesus and His disciples as leather clad homosexual sadomasochists who, instead of sharing bread and wine, were gathered around a table full of sex toys. The event honored by Newsom describes itself as “the world’s largest leather event.”

Despite his record, Newsom told The Santa Clara, the magazine of his Jesuit-run alma mater in a February 2008 interview that he “still has tremendous admiration for the Church and very strong faith.”

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