PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) A former archbishop in the U.S. who’s now a high-ranking Vatican cardinal is facing scrutiny for his decision to reassign a known abusive priest in 1995 without informing parishioners of the priest’s past.
An attorney who represented priest sex-abuse victims in Oregon on Friday (April 2) released a 2006 deposition by Cardinal William J. Levada, who was archbishop of Portland from 1986-1995.
Levada is now prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that since 2001 has claimed jurisdiction over all abuse cases.
Much of the information, including Levada’s decision to reassign a priest known to have sexually abused teenage boys, has been reported in the past, through lawsuits and the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
But Portland attorney Erin Olson released the 293-page deposition after reading statements by Levada, who attacked The New York Times in defending the pope’s role in handling priests who sexually abused children.
Levada had criticized The Times for faulting Pope Benedict XVI — then Cardinal John Ratzinger — for the failure to defrock a Wisconsin priest who had sexually abused as many as 200 deaf children.
Levada’s defense “did not particularly surprise me,” Olson said, “considering he had made the decision to reinstate a priest who was a child abuser to a parish that had a school.”
Olson was referring to the Rev. Joseph Baccellieri, who at first was removed from his position in 1992 when Levada learned of allegations of sex abuse of teenage boys from the 1970s. Levada reassigned him to another parish in 1995.
In the 2006 deposition, Levada defended the decision, saying the priest went through extensive therapy, and the pastor of the parish was charged with overseeing Baccellieri, as therapists recommended. In addition, he said in the deposition, “I have seen nothing to date that leads me to think my actions in this matter were not responsible and appropriate.”
He also defended not informing parishioners of the priest’s history.
“It might give people the implication that if they are being told this, that I am suspecting that he … may be a risk to their children,” Levada said, according to the Associated Press, adding later that “I stand on that — on that judgment I made.”
No new claims surfaced against Baccellieri since those from the 1970s.
The deposition is one of several documents that were placed under seal until a July 2009 ruling by the U.S. Bankruptcy judge overseeing the archdiocese’s Chapter 11 filing.