Cardinal William Levada
Senior American Catholic prelate who, as the head of the CDF, was the Pope’s doctrinal watchdog
CARDINAL WILLIAM LEVADA, who has died aged 83, was the highestranking American prelate in the Vatican, occupying the post of Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department once known as “La Suprema”, from 2005 to 2012.
No American had risen higher in the Catholic hierarchy before him, or has since; yet Levada’s time in Rome illustrated not just his own personal lack of colour, but the weakness of the man who appointed him, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI.
Ratzinger had himself, after a brief stint as Archbishop of Munich in his native Bavaria, been called to Rome by Pope John Paul II to run the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which he did for an unprecedented 23 years, even though Prefects in the Vatican were supposed to be appointed for six-year terms.
As the Pope’s doctrinal watchdog, with a reputation (not altogether deserved) for harsh repression of dissent, Ratzinger had become the most powerful man in the Vatican after the Pontiff himself. Thus, when Ratzinger was himself elected Pope, his choice as successor at the CDF – one of his first appointments – was carefully watched.
Levada came as something of a surprise; as a former Archbishop of San Francisco, he had wider pastoral experience than Ratzinger, and it was assumed that his tenure signalled a softer approach to theological dissent. He had worked in the CDF as a young priest and had a doctorate in theology, but did not have the theological weight of a Ratzinger, which was also seen as a marked change.
Moreover, his nationality was seen as a nod to the immense financial debt the Vatican owed to the American Church, which had long felt under-represented in Rome. However, the promotion of Levada became emblematic of Ratzinger’s inability to find outstandingly capable men to work under him, something that was to lead to the eventual unravelling of his papacy.
During his seven years at the CDF, Levada made little impression on the wider Church, or even on the Vatican itself. He was disliked by the Italians as an Englishspeaking foreigner, “un anglo-sassone”; although of Portuguese and Irish heritage, he pronounced his name in the American fashion, to rhyme with Darth Vader (a character he hardly resembled, but the nickname stuck): this annoyed purists, who pronounced his name after the Italian fashion.
Levada was widely regarded as weak. On a temporary return to America for medical treatment to his spine, several Vatican employees were heard remarking that they were surprised he had one.
His period in office did have positive aspects, however. The CDF was seen less as a Star Chamber dedicated to rooting out heresy, and gradually lost its importance in the Vatican, which pleased theological liberals. Under Levada the Congregation continued its role in the investigation and punishment of those guilty of child abuse and other crimes, most notably dealing with the case of the notorious Marcial Maciel, the Mexican priest whose long career of sexual corruption had been ignored and covered up for decades.
In addition, Levada oversaw the establishment of Ordinariates, that is, non-territorial dioceses, for former Anglicans who were invited to convert to Rome en masse and bring with them some of their Anglican patrimony. These were set up in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
William Joseph Levada was born in Long Beach, California, on June 15 1936. His parents were Joseph and Lorraine (née Nunez). There was an older sister, Dolores, who predeceased him in 2007. He was educated at St Anthony High School in Long Beach and then studied for the priesthood, first at St John’s Seminary in Camarillo, and then, from 1958 to 1961, at the North American College in Rome.
He was ordained to the priesthood on December 20 1961 in St Peter’s Basilica. For the next five years Levada worked in various parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles before returning to Rome for further studies at the North American College. He wrote a doctorate on natural law, which did not receive the highest grade and which was never published in full.
Back in the United States, he taught theology in the Los Angeles diocesan seminary and became director of continuing education for the clergy in the archdiocese. But he was soon recalled to Rome to work in the CDF, on the recommendation of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, which he did from 1976 to 1982. Here, towards the end of his tenure, he first met Ratzinger.
On his return to the US he was rapidly promoted. In 1982 he became executive director of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops in Sacramento. A year later, he became an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles. In 1986 he was appointed chancellor and moderator of the archdiocesan curia.
On July 1 1986 Levada became the Archbishop of Portland in Oregon. In 1987 Cardinal Ratzinger asked him to be one of the committee charged with producing the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, which brought him into contact with most of the bishops of the Catholic world.
In 1995 Levada was made Archbishop of San Francisco, a position he held for 10 years until he was unexpectedly promoted to be head of the CDF.
As a prelate of conservative hue, Levada had to tread carefully in the most liberal city in America, famous for its openness to gay rights. In 1997, when the city of San Francisco passed a law that all companies should treat domestic partners in the same way as formally married spouses, Levada objected that this undermined the status of marriage. Not to fall foul of the law, he directed that unmarried employees of the archdiocese could designate any person sharing the same address as their beneficiary.
In 2005 he led a march of about 1,000 people through the streets of San Francisco to protest against same-sex marriage. The following year, he opposed adoption by gay couples. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors denounced “such hateful and discriminatory rhetoric [which] is insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors”.
Levada spent his retirement mainly in Menlo Park, California. He was part of the conclave that elected Pope Francis. In retirement he avoided controversy, rarely commenting on the current papacy.
Cardinal William Levada, born June 15 1936, died September 26 2019