Attorneys want assurances on Vatican official's deposition

WILLIAM McCALL
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. - Attorneys for alleged victims of priest sex abuse argued Friday they should be allowed to ask whether the highest-ranking American in the Vatican is following federal law or church doctrine when he takes an oath to tell the truth at a deposition next month.

Archbishop William Levada has agreed to be in San Francisco on Jan. 9 to be questioned by attorneys about his tenure as archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland from 1986-95.

The Portland archdiocese was the first diocese in the nation to declare bankruptcy when it filed for protection from creditors in July 2004, just before the scheduled start of jury trials for victims seeking more than $155 million in damages.

Levada had been the archbishop in San Francisco before Pope Benedict XVI named him to take over the pontiff's old job as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican. The prefect is responsible for protecting church teachings and for reviewing all sex abuse claims against clergy.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/13425581.htm

That one must be concerned that these great arbiters of "moral values" can't be trusted to tell the truth in a court of law. But we should get used to it, because if the neocons get the theocracy they're looking for, we can expect a whole lot more of this.

as he would be an "evil Catholic" and most of the theocrats are the "born-again" fundie radical Protastants. Most Catholic nuts keep their power trips inside the chuch (some exceptions like late in life fundie converts and William Donahue). They want to kick out all the heterodox "liberals" out of the RCC. They do not want a US Catholic Theocracy.

I grew up in a fundamentalist church that considered Catholics to be idol worshippers who venerated Mary above Jesus. (And nothing gets fundie panties in a wad like too much attention to a mere woman.)