VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
by John L Allen Jr on Jun. 15, 2012 All Things Catholic
Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Vatican’s ultra-powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is a devoted disciple of his boss and mentor, Pope Benedict XVI, in virtually every way save one. While the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was a celebrity as a Vatican official, Levada, who turns 76 today, keeps a much lower profile, preferring to operate behind the scenes.
Levada rarely gives interviews, and when he does, it’s because he has something to say, not because he simply enjoys the exercise.
As a result, when Levada agreed to an exclusive one-on-one interview this week to discuss the Vatican’s dust-up with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, you can take it to the bank that it wasn’t a casual choice. Instead, it amounted to acknowledgment that the LCWR dispute has stirred enormous discussion, much of it critical of the Vatican, and this was Levada’s effort to respond.
For instance, Levada knows well that the move has been perceived as an attack on religious women across the board, and insisted that those perceptions miss the mark.
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