The head of San Francisco’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese will sit on the Vatican’s highest judicial body.
Pope Leo XIV has named Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone as one of the seven new members of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. The Vatican’s press office announced the appointment Saturday along with other assignments within the church.
The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura is composed of cardinals, bishops and priests serving five-year terms. It is the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church, second only to the pope.
Cordileone expressed his gratitude to the pope for the assignment in a post on X. “I receive this responsibility with a profound sense of stewardship, recognizing that every office in the Church is entrusted for the service of Christ, His people, and the mission of the Gospel,” he wrote.
Church news site Catholic Culture reported that Cordileone will continue to lead the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which oversees Roman Catholic parishes in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties, along with other dioceses around Northern California.
Cordileone was born in San Diego in 1956 and has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of San Diego, a private Catholic university, according to the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s website. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as fourth bishop of Oakland in 2009 and to his current position at the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 2012.
“Religious liberty is a critical issue in our time that needs to be defended and addressed,” Cordileone said in a statement to the Chronicle after the appointment. “I am happy to join my brother bishops in providing a Catholic voice on this important topic at a national level.”