EX-VATICAN DOCTRINE CHIEF DIES
(Aka Holy Office of the Inquisition)
Questions remain about his involvement with sex abuse cover-up
ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Cardinal William Levada died at the age of 83 in Rome on Thursday, and while establishment Catholic media is gushing about him, there are still many questions regarding his relationship with the cover-up of homosexual predator priests as archbishop of San Francisco.
Levada was appointed head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and made a cardinal in 2016. As a priest working in California, he began working at the CDF from 1976 to 1982, having been recommended by Chicago's Cdl. Joseph Bernardin, a suspected homosexual predator satanist.
After returning to California in 1982, he was named secretary of the California Catholic Conference and ordained an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles a year later.
In 1986, he was appointed chancellor of the archdiocese of Los Angeles under the now-disgraced Cdl. Roger Mahony who covered up for homosexual predator priests and sold off Church property to pay $660 million in payouts to sex abuse victims — the largest in history.
The same year, he was appointed archbishop of Portland, Oregon, where he stayed until 1995, when he was archbishop of San Francisco until 2005.
In 2004, the archdiocese of Portland declared bankruptcy, paying out over $53 million. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in July, only hours after two sex abuse trials were supposed to begin. The alleged victims were seeking $155 million in damages against the archdiocese, but the trials were halted after the announcement.
After Levada had been appointed as head of the CDF in Rome in 2005, Oregon investigators sought testimony from Levada regarding his time as archbishop of Portland and insight into Vatican procedures on sex abuse, maintaining he was "uniquely qualified" to discuss them.
Levada, however, refused by claiming diplomatic immunity through his attorneys and maintained that if he testified, he could face "excommunication, confinement to a residence or a house of penance for up to five years, and a prohibition from holding any office or faculty."
The abuse victims' attorney, Erin Olson, asserted, "He's not trying to assert immunity to prevent him from having to show up — he's trying to assert immunity from having to answer certain, but not all, questions."
I believe there was some allegation that occurred while I was there.Tweet
After heavy public scrutiny, Levada agreed to waive his diplomatic immunity and appear in court in January 2006 to answer questions about his handling of homosexual serial predator Fr. Joseph Baccellieri.
Levada testified that, in 1992, he learned about complaints going back 20 years regarding Baccellieri raping teenage boys, saying, "I believe there was some allegation that occurred while I was there." His lawyer would not allow him to say anything more about Baccellieri.
It was revealed, however, that in 1993, Levada had authorized payments to three of Baccellieri's victims who claimed the priest sodomized them. They were threatening to make his abuse public, and Levada personally met with at least one of the victims, authorizing an undisclosed amount of money to the victims in exchange for their silence.
Then, in 1994, he returned Baccellieri back to ministry.
Levada defended his decision to keep Baccellieri's removal and treatment secret from parishioners, claiming, "It might give people the implication that if they are being told this, that I am suspecting that he — he may be at risk — he may be a risk to their children," adding, "If I thought Father Baccellieri would be a risk to any child, I would never have reassigned him."
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