William Levada

William Joseph Levada (June 15, 1936 – September 26, 2019) was an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. From May 2005 until June 2012, he served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI; he was the highest ranking American in the Roman Curia. He was previously the Archbishop of Portland in Oregon from 1986 to 1995, and then Archbishop of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005. Involvement in U.S. clerical sexual abuse and coverup[edit] Main article: Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Portland Some have criticized how Levada dealt with priests who had committed sexual abuse in Portland and in San Francisco.[11][12] In 1985, as a contact of Boston's Cardinal Law about the issue, 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 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their June 1985 meeting. A few days later Father Doyle was informed by Levada that their report would not be heard by the bishops. Weeks later, Doyle was demoted from his post in Vatican embassy.[13] In a 2008 interview Levada said: "I personally do not accept that there has been a broad base of bishops guilty of aiding and abetting pedophiles. If I thought there were, I would certainly want to talk to them about that."[14] As archbishop in Portland, Levada removed Father Joseph Baccellieri, a parish priest accused of child molestation, in 1992 but did not refer the matter to the police. In 1993, he learned of allegations that the priest had abused not one but three male victims. Levada authorized secret payments to the victims after they threatened to make the allegations public in a lawsuit.[15] 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. Levada did not inform parishioners or law enforcement about the allegations. Baccellieri went on to serve as a pastor or associate pastor in four Portland-area parishes between 1994 and 2001, when he went on leave to study canon law.[15] After spending $53 million to settle more than 100 claims of priestly sex abuse, Portland in 2004 became the first U.S. Roman Catholic archdiocese to declare bankruptcy.[15] In February 2013, 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.[16]