Join us on Facebook: www.fb.com/occupythevatican

One of the Catholic Church’s most senior U.S. leaders, who recently led the Vatican’s doctrine-enforcing arm, was arrested and charged with drunken driving after police said his car was swerving about midnight on a Hawaii highway.

Cardinal William Levada, 79, was stopped late Thursday in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Monday. Levada, who was archbishop of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005, was charged with driving under the influence and released from custody after posting $500 bail, the Tribune-Herald reported.

Michael Brown, spokesman of the San Francisco archdiocese, sent this statement Tuesday to the Post: “I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperate with the authorities.”

From May 2005 until 2012 the California native was the prefect, or head, of theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was created in the 1500s to defend Catholicism from heresy. Today, according to the Vatican’s Web site, its role is to “promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world.” Levada was appointed to the position by Pope Benedict XVI.

Brown declined to answer questions about Levada’s activities that night, saying only that he was “on vacation with priest friends.” He has a court date of Sept. 24 and is required to appear.

The Tribune-Herald quoted an unnamed police spokeswoman as saying Levada was pulled over after a Kona patrol officer saw his car swerve while he was driving northbound on Queen Kaahumanu Highway north of Kealakehe Parkway. He was alone in the car at the time, the spokeswoman said. She declined to release Levada’s blood alcohol content to the Tribune-Herald, but a 0.08 blood alcohol level is the threshold for legal intoxication while driving in Hawaii.

Brown wrote to the Post that if the incident was simply “a lapse in judgement, the matter would probably be considered less serious. If the matter seemed to indicate a more serious problem, this would be treated more seriously.  This would be true at all employee levels.”

Source: http://wapo.st/1EUVx3V