One of the high-ranking American officials of the Roman Catholic Church was arrested for drunken driving late last week in Kailua-Kona.
The Most Eminent Cardinal William Joseph Levada, 79, of Menlo Park, Calif., was stopped at about midnight Thursday on Hina Lani Street and charged with DUI, according to the police arrest log. He was released from police custody after posting $500 bail about an hour later.
“I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperating with the authorities,” Levada said in an email statement issued Monday by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Levada, the former Archbishop of San Francisco, was appointed as a cardinal, a prince of the church, on May 13, 2005, by Pope Benedict XVI, just weeks after his election as pontiff. He was the first U.S. prelate to lead the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s powerful guardian of doctrine. He now holds the title of Prefect Emeritus of the Conclave of the Faith since his retirement as prefect in July 2012.
Levada was on vacation with priest friends when the DUI arrest occurred, according to archdiocese spokesman Michael Brown.
He has a court date of Sept. 24 in Kona District Court.
A police spokeswoman said in a Monday email Levada was pulled over after a Kona patrol officer saw him swerve while driving northbound on Queen Kaahumanu Highway north of Kealakehe Parkway.
Levada was driving a 2015 Nissan Altima and was alone in the car at the time, the spokeswoman said. She could not say who the car is registered to or if the car was towed. She also declined to give Levada’s blood-alcohol content, but a 0.08 blood-alcohol level is the threshold for legal intoxication in Hawaii.
According to the archdiocese website, Levada, a Long Beach, Calif., native, was ordained a priest in the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1961.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.