PURITAN NEWS WEEKLY

www.puritans.net/news/

10/25/07

WILLIAM JOSEPH CARDINAL LEVADA

By Parnell McCarter

An examination of William Joseph Cardinal Levada offers a window into the Roman Catholic Church at its highest levels.

“As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Levada is the principal defender of all the moral and theological doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, sometimes acting as chief prosecutor against members of the Church who have strayed from those values. As the most influential position in the government of the Church apart from the Holy Father himself, Levada is considered the highest ranking American in the institution.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joseph_Levada ) Levada was recommended by Cardinal Bernardin as an official in this body many years ago : “From 1976 to 1982, Levada was an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, having been recommended by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joseph_Levada ) This is the same Bernardin described at http://www.puritans.net/news/boysclub082405.htm .

Has Levada followed in the footsteps of Bernardin? Consider this quote from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/27/BAG4OEU9HU1.DTL&hw=most+holy+redeemer&sn=001&sc=1000 :

“Most Holy Redeemer's priests baptize children of same-sex couples, and a large contingent of parishioners marches every year in San Francisco's gay pride parade. This year, they waved gay pride and Vatican flags together. William Levada -- former archbishop of San Francisco and now, as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican official who oversees implementation of church teachings -- once told parishioners that he enjoyed visiting Most Holy Redeemer because it was among the most welcoming in the diocese. Across the country, in places such as Springfield, Mo., and Memphis, dioceses and parishes are reaching out to the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community by starting ministries that cater to gays and lesbians and do not aim to change anyone's sexual orientation.”

And consider this information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Joseph_Levada:

“Some critics have criticized how Levada dealt priests who had committed sexual abuse in Portland and in San Francisco.^[1] According to Catholics for a Free Choice, Levada "shielded a pedophile in the Diocese of Portland, Ore., for approximately nine years, which helped lead to the bankruptcy of the diocese and earned the wrath of survivor groups for his actions on the Vatican’s commission to revise the US bishops’ sex abuse norms. He has been criticized by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) for failing to remove priests accused of sexual abuse from active ministry and for keeping documents about those priests secret."^[2]

Like father, like son, the Roman Catholic Church remains essentially the same from generation to generation.