William Levada
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| Styles of William Joseph Cardinal Levada |
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| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | San Francisco (emeritus) |
William Joseph Cardinal Levada, (born 15 June 1936) is an American Roman Catholic cardinal, currently serving in the Roman Curia as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Levada became a cardinal in the consistory of March 24, 2006.
Levada's previous positions include that of Archbishop of Portland in Oregon from 1986 to 1995, and Archbishop of San Francisco 1995 to 2005. He was also a principal editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and clerical formation
Levada was born in Long Beach, California.
His great-grandparents came from Portugal and Ireland, and immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1860s. He grew up in Long Beach and Houston, Texas, and attended a college seminary in the Roman Catholic Archidiocese of Los Angeles.
From 1958 to 1961, Levada attended seminary at the North American College and did his theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest on December 20, 1961.
[edit] Priestly ministry
From 1961 until around 1966, Levada worked in parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including St. Monica's Church in Santa Monica. He also taught high school and worked in college campus ministry.
After this, he returned to Rome and continued his studies at the North American College. He received a doctorate in sacred theology. His 1971 dissertation was written under Francis A. Sullivan, SJ. In the early 1970s, he returned to the United States and taught theology at St. John's Seminary School of Theology in Camarillo, California. During this time he was also named the first Director of Continuing Education for the Clergy in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and received the title Monsignor.
From 1976 to 1982, Levada was an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican. He had been recommeded by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. During this time, he taught part-time at the Pontifical Gregorian University. At the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Levada served under three popes (Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I, and Pope John Paul II), and under two prefects of the CDF (Franjo Cardinal Seper and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger).
In 1982, Los Angeles Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Manning named Levada as the Executive Director of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops in Sacramento, the public policy arm of the Church in California.
[edit] Episcopal ministry
Levada was ordained a bishop on May 12, 1983 to the titular see of Capreae, and was assigned as an auxiliary bishop to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. In 1984 he was appointed Episcopal Vicar of Santa Barbara County. In 1986 he was appointed chancellor and moderator of the archdiocesan curia. Serving under Roger Cardinal Mahony, Levada reorganized the internal structure of the diocese.
On September 21, 1986, Levada became the Archbishop of Portland. During his tenure in Portland, Levada help to revitalize Mount Angel Seminary. Levada briefly taught at the Seminary as well. Other accomplishments in Portland included reorganizing Catholic Charities, working in outreach to the Hispanic Catholic community, and renovating St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1987, Levada and six other Bishops were chosen by Cardinal Ratzinger to edit the forthcoming Catechism of the Catholic Church. When the Catechism was completed in 1993, the first English translation was very loose and used a great deal of inclusive language. Along with Archbishop Eric D'Arcy of Hobart, Australia and Fr. John Wall, Levada insisted that this be replaced with a more literal translation, and it was a new and more literal translation that was published in English in 1994. Levada also authored the glossary for the second edition of the Catechism.
On August 17, 1995, Levada was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of San Francisco, and on December 27 of the same year succeeded John Raphael Quinn as the Archbishop of San Francisco. Some of Levada's most famous actions as Archbishop of San Francisco involved in the issues surrounding gay rights. In 1997, the City of San Francisco passed a law that all companies must provide the same benefits for domestic partners as for their spouses. Levada objected that this violated Catholic teaching on the unique status of marriage, but the city would not budge. Levada's solution was seen as a compromise in some circles and a brilliant move in others: He ruled that unmarried employees of the archdiocese could designate any person sharing the same address as their beneficiary. This complied with the statute while avoiding a privileged status for unmarried domestic partnerships. Levada also allowed a predominantly gay and lesbian parish in the Castro district, Most Holy Redeemer Church to remain active in the Archdiocese.
In November 2000, Levada was appointed one of the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he again served under Cardinal Ratzinger. This was a part-time task which let him remain in California.
Also in 2000, Levada became the Bishop Co-Chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States. In November 2003, Levada was appointed as Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine. This was a three-year term, but he resigned in 2005 due to his new duties in Rome and was replaced by Arthur J. Serratelli, Bishop of Paterson.
On September 18, 1998, he consecrated Monsignor John C. Wester to the episcopate as an auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco. In January 30, 2003, he consecrated Monsignor Ignatius C. Wang to the episcopate as his second auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco. Bishop Wang, a native of Beijing, is the first Chinese and first Asian Bishop to be ordained for a diocese in the United States.
Some critics have voiced uncertainty about how Levada handled priests who had committed sexual abuse in Portland and in San Francisco. [1] As President and Chancellor of Saint Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, Archbishop Levada has had to deal with the dismissal of his academic dean at the seminary after the dean's arrest in Santa Rosa on charges apparently related to child pornography and sexual abuse. [2]
Many Traditional Catholics were unhappy with Levada's refusal to allow Tridentine Masses to be celebrated in his Archdiocese.[1]
[edit] Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
On May 13, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Levada to succeed him, the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
It was commonly speculated that the pope's reasons for choosing Levada may have included the fact that Levada had been a principal editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the fact that the two of them had worked together at the CDF in the past, and the pope's desire to have an American heading the CDF since one of its major roles today is to deal with the fallout from the sexual abuse scandal.
Levada resigned as Archbishop of San Francisco effective August 17, 2005, the tenth anniversary of the announcement of his appointment as coadjutor to San Francisco. One of his last official duties as metropolitan bishop was to serve as principal consecrator of Clarence Richard Silva as the new Bishop of Honolulu, since Honolulu is a suffragan diocese of the San Francisco ecclesiastical province.
On February 22, 2006, Pope Benedict announced that Levada was to be elevated to the College of Cardinals, a nomination which was much foreseen, given his curial position. On March 24, Levada was named the Cardinal Deacon of the Titulus S. Mariae in Domnica.
[edit] Levada's views on theology and society
Cardinal Levada's views reflect the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. To learn his views on most theological and moral questions, it is sufficient to learn the views of the Church.
With regard to certain disputed and controversial topics, the following quotes from Levada are pertinent.
On Catholic teachers who dissent from Catholic teachings:
Catholic theology does not recognize the right to dissent, if by that we mean adopting conclusions which are contrary to the clear teachings of the authoritative, noninfallible magisterium and which are presented to the public in such a way as to constitute equivalently an alternative personal magisterium. [2]
In 1995, Levada stated that the Catholic Church's teaching regarding the immorality of directly-willed abortion had been infallibly taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium, as stated in Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium Vitae:
The individual politician, like any Catholic, who is at odds with the teaching of the Church about the principle involved, i.e., that abortion constitutes the killing of innocent human life and is always gravely immoral (cf. Evangelium Vitae, nn. 57-62), has an obligation to reflect more deeply on the issue, in the hope of allowing the persuasive character of this infallibly taught teaching to become part of his belief and value system. I say infallibly taught not because Pope John Paul II has assumed in Evangelium Vitae the special prerogative recognized for individual papal teachings in the First Vatican Council, but rather because he has called attention explicitly to the fact that Catholic teaching on abortion has been an infallible doctrine of the Church by virtue of the universal ordinary Magisterium, recognized for the teachings of the Pope and worldwide college of bishops together by the Second Vatican Council. [3]
Levada led a march of approximately 1,000 people through the streets of San Francisco in April of 2005 in protest of gay marriage. For his denunciation of same-sex marriage, Levada has been criticized by LGBT associations. He wrote in 2004:
Heterosexual marriage, procreation and the nurturing of children form the bedrock of the family, and the family unit lies at the heart of every society. To extend the meaning of marriage beyond a union of a man and a woman, their procreative capacity, and their establishment of family represents a misguided understanding of marriage.
On Catholic politicians:
A Catholic, to be in full communion with the faith of the Church, must accept this teaching about the evil of abortion and euthanasia.
On Islam:
If both Islam and Christianity view themselves as universal and missionary, it does not mean an impasse but an opportunity to search further into the mystery of that faith to see how it resonates and relates to the other's faith.
[edit] Significance of Levada's role
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.
Other Americans heading dicasteries in the Roman Curia and associated institutions include James Francis Cardinal Stafford, Major Penitentiary; Archbishop James Harvey, Prefect of the Pontifical Household and Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
[edit] Episcopal Succession
| Episcopal Lineage | |
| Consecrated by: | Timothy Cardinal Manning |
| Date of consecration: | May 23, 1983 |
| Consecrator of | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | Date of consecration |
| Tod David Brown | April 3, 1989 |
| Alexander Joseph Brunett | July 6, 1994 |
| John Charles Wester | September 18, 1998 |
| Joseph Anthony Pepe | May 31, 2001 |
| Ignatius Chung Wang | January 30, 2003 |
| Clarence Richard Silva | July 21, 2005 |
[edit] Sources
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ See San Francisco Faith, March 1999.
- ^ "Dissent and the Catholic Religion Teacher", Speech to National Catholic Educational Association, April 2, 1986. Printed in Origins, v. 16 (1986), pp. 195-200. Reprinted in Readings in Moral Theology No. 6: Dissent in the Church, ed. by Charles Curran and Richard McCormick, Paulist Press, 1988, pp. 133-151, ISBN 0-8091-2930-2.
- ^ From The Catholic Sentinel, 6/2/1995.
[edit] Additional sources
- Statement of Levada on his appointment as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (May 13, 2005)
- Profile of Levada in the San Francisco Chronicle (May 14, 2005)
- Most Holy Redeemer Parish (May 17, 2005)
| Preceded by: Cornelius Michael Power |
Archbishop of Portland 1986–1995 |
Succeeded by: Francis Cardinal George, OMI |
| Preceded by: John Raphael Quinn |
Archbishop of San Francisco 1995–2005 |
Succeeded by: George Hugh Niederauer |
| Preceded by: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger |
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 2005 – present |
Incumbent |
