1. William Joseph Levada was an American Catholic prelate who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2005 to 2012.
38 Facts About William Levada
1. 2.
William Levada was previously the Archbishop of Portland in Oregon from 1986 to 1995 and Archbishop of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005.
3.
William Levada was created a cardinal in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI.
4.
William Joseph Levada was born in Long Beach, California, to Joseph and Lorraine Levada, both natives of Concord, California.
5.
William Levada's great-grandparents came from Portugal and Ireland, and emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1860s.
6.
William Levada grew up in Long Beach and Houston, Texas, attended St Anthony High School Long Beach and then St John's Seminary in Camarillo, part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
7.
From 1958 to 1961, Levada studied at the North American College and did his theological studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
8.
William Levada was ordained to the priesthood on December 20,1961, by Archbishop Martin John O'Connor, rector of the Pontifical North American College and president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, in St Peter's Basilica.
9.
From 1961 until around 1966, William Levada worked in parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including St Louis of France in La Puente and St Monica in Santa Monica.
10.
William Levada taught high school and worked in college campus ministry.
11.
William Levada's 1971 dissertation was written under Francis A Sullivan, SJ, on "Infallible Church Magisterium and the Natural Moral Law".
12.
William Levada was named the first Director of Continuing Education for the Clergy in the archdiocese, and received the title Monsignor.
13.
From 1976 to 1982, William Levada was an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, having been recommended by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
14.
At the CDF, William Levada served under three popes, and under two prefects of the CDF.
15.
On July 1,1986, William Levada became the Archbishop of Portland in Oregon.
16.
In November 2000, William Levada was appointed one of the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he again served under Cardinal Ratzinger.
17.
Also in 2000, William Levada became the bishop co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States.
18.
In November 2003, William Levada was appointed as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine.
19.
In 2013, William Levada was a cardinal elector during the 2013 papal conclave.
20.
In 1985, as a contact of Boston's Cardinal Law about the issue, William Levada was given a report by a three-man panel headed by Father Tom Doyle about medical, legal, and moral issues posed by abusive clerics in an attempt to present the report to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops at their June 1985 meeting.
21.
William Levada authorized secret payments to the victims after they threatened to make the allegations public in a lawsuit.
22.
William Levada allowed Baccellieri to return to duty in 1994 after he had undergone therapy and with the condition that he couldn't be around children and couldn't counsel adults or children.
23.
William Levada did not inform parishioners or law enforcement about the allegations.
24.
In February 2013, William Levada told the media that Cardinal Roger Mahony should be allowed to help select the next pope, even though Mahony had obstructed the investigation of child abusers while he headed the church in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
25.
William Levada was named cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica, which was later elevated to cardinal priest in 2016.
26.
William Levada was a member of the Congregation for Bishops, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
27.
William Levada was succeeded that same day by Gerhard Ludwig Muller.
28.
On October 31,2009, Cardinal William Levada responded to speculation that the rule whereby in some Eastern Catholic Churches ordination to the diaconate and priesthood is open to married men as well as to celibates will apply to the personal ordinariates for former Anglicans.
29.
William Levada made it clear that the canonical discipline of the Western Catholic Church applies to these ordinariates.
30.
William Levada argued that only a marriage between a man and a woman can create the "bedrock of the family".
31.
In 2006, William Levada stated that the Archdiocese of San Francisco should more carefully avoid allowing gay couples to adopt children locally.
32.
William Levada was one of six bishops given responsibility in 1987 for editing the text of an updated version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
33.
William Levada opposed the draft of an English translation made available in 1993, objecting to its preference for gender-inclusive language.
34.
William Levada's views prevailed and the version published in 1994 maintained the traditional gendered expressions of earlier catechisms.
35.
William Levada authored the glossary for the second edition of the catechism.
36.
On Catholics who dissent from Catholic teachings William Levada wrote that "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, infallible magisterium and which are presented to the public in such a way as to constitute equivalently an alternative personal magisterium".
37.
William Levada made a clear distinction between "witnessing," or sharing the New Testament, and proselytizing, which he thought wrong.
38.
William Levada lived in St Patrick seminary, Menlo Park, California.