U.S. cardinal, former head of Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm, is charged with drunk-driving

By Michelle Boorstein
WashingtPost
August 25, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/08/25/u-s-cardinal-former-head-of-vaticans-doctrine-enforcing-arm-is-charged-with-drunk-driving/

Cardinal William Levada gestures during a media conference on Feb. 25, 2013, at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, Calif.

One of the Catholic Church’s most senior U.S. leaders, who recently led the Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm, was arrested and charged with drunk driving after police said his car was swerving around midnight on a Hawaii highway.

Cardinal William Levada, 79, was stopped late Thursday in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Monday. Levada, who was archbishop of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005, was charged with driving under the influence and released from custody after posting $500 bail, the Tribune-Herald reported.

A message left Tuesday morning with the archdiocese of San Francisco was not immediately returned, but the Tribune-Herald said the archdiocese had issued this statement: “I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperate with the authorities.”

From May 2005 until 2012 the California native was the prefect, or head, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was created in the 1500s to defend Catholicism from heresy. Today, according to the Vatican’s Web site, its role is to “promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world.” Levada was appointed to the position by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Hawaii news organization quoted San Francisco archdiocesan spokesman Michael Brown as saying that Levada was on vacation with priest friends when the arrest happened. He has a court date of Sept. 24 and is required to appear.

It also quoted an unnamed police spokeswoman as saying Levada was pulled over after a Kona patrol officer saw his car swerve while he was driving northbound on Queen Kaahumanu Highway north of Kealakehe Parkway. He was alone in the car at the time, the spokeswoman said. She declined to release Levada’s blood-alcohol content to the Tribune-Herald, but a 0.08 blood-alcohol level is the threshold for legal intoxication in Hawaii.

In an e-mail to the Huffington Post, Brown said “punishment is not a factor. … Where a lapse in judgment occurred, the matter would probably be considered less serious. If the matter seemed to indicate a more serious problem, this would be treated more seriously.  This would be true at all employee levels.”