Returning Cardinal Levada gets warm welcome in San Francisco

Published: 2006-07-25

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- On his first U.S. visit since he was elevated to the College of Cardinals in March and nearly a year since he left San Francisco to serve as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, Cardinal William J. Levada received a warm welcome as he celebrated Mass at San Francisco's St. Mary's Cathedral July 23. In May 2005 Pope Benedict XVI chose Cardinal Levada, then archbishop of San Francisco, to serve as prefect of the Vatican's doctrinal office, a post the pope himself had held for more than two decades under Pope John Paul II. Cardinal Levada, a native of California, is the highest-ranking American serving at the Vatican. At the July 23 Mass, San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer welcomed Cardinal Levada and praised him for being a man who faithfully speaks the truth of church teaching. In an interview with Catholic San Francisco, newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Cardinal Levada described his first year as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as "intense."

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