Overflow Crowd Honors Cardinal Levada at Naples Event

By Greg Mellen
Long Beach Press-Telegram
January 3, 2012

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_19668689

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, left, greets Cardinal William Levada, center, and Archbishop of San Francisco George H. Niederauer, right, during a fundraiser held at Michael's on Naples Ristorante in Long Beach. Cardinal William Levada, a graduate of St. Anthony High who has risen to become the highest ranking American in the Vatican, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. (Stephen Carr / Staff Photographer)

VATICAN CITY - MARCH 25: Newly appointed cardinal William Joseph Levada, Archbishop of San Francisco, receives the cardinalitial ring from Pope Benedict XVI in Saint Peter's Square , March 25, 2006 in Vatican City. The Pontiff installed 15 new cardinals during the Consistory ceremony. (Getty Images / Franco Origlia)

LONG BEACH - An overflow crowd gathered Tuesday in Naples to celebrate and pay honor to Cardinal William Levada, who in December was recognized at the Vatican on the 50th anniversary of his ordination into the priesthood.

Levada, who heads up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, an administrative branch in the Vatican, is the highest-ranking American member in the Roman Catholic Church. He occupies the same position held by Pope Benedict XVI before his elevation.

On Tuesday, alumni from St. Anthony High, Levada's alma mater, and church leaders and other dignitaries gathered at Michael's on Naples to fete him.

The event was also a fundraiser for an endowed William J. Levada Chair on Systematic Theology being created at St. John's Seminary, where Levada attended after graduation from St. Anthony.

Levada, who was also a faculty member at the small seminary in Camarillo, which generally has 70 to 80 theologians in each class, is its most accomplished alumnus.

Monsignor Craig Cox said the chair would be important for the school symbolically.

"One of the great things about Catholicism is that when it's at its best, it puts the head and the heart together," said Cox, the seminary's rector and president.

Levada, he said, was not only a brilliant theologian,

but a fine pastor.

"We want that model for your theologians," Cox said.

Cox added that he had insight into Levada's intellect.

"He taught me, so I know him from that context, as well," he said.

Levada wasn't available to take questions Tuesday, but mingled and posed for pictures.

The cardinal was elevated to his current position in the Roman Catholic church in 2005 after the Pope was named. A former Archbishop in Portland, Ore., and San Francisco,

Levada has led the church's recent efforts to deal with the continuing fallout from sexual abuse.

San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer, a classmate of Levada and his successor in San Francisco, said the cardinal's firsthand experience dealing with sex abuse cases beginning in the 1980s gives him keen insight in this post at the Vatican.

Levada handled several high-profile cases when the depth and scope of sexual abuse cases were coming to light in the United States. Although the cardinal has been both praised and criticized for his handling of the scandals, church leaders, like Niederauer, say Levada is particularly suited to deal with the international crisis.

On Tuesday, the talk was about things other than church politics. Although Niederauer said he always recognized Levada's "keen mind and razor- sharp intellect," just as important to him has been their friendship.

"That's meant a great deal to me. I think you don't get by with a little help from your friends, you get by with a lot of help from your friends."

Contact: greg.mellen@presstelegram.com