Archbishop Levada subpoened just before his last Mass as SF Ordinary

Archbishop William Levada, soon to be the highest ranking American at the Vatican, was welcomed to his final Sunday Mass here by thousands of admiring parishioners, a few critics and a subpoena compelling him to testify about sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.

Levada was handed the subpoena minutes before he began the procession to the altar at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

It requires him to give a deposition Aug. 12 concerning sex abuse allegations against priests in the Portland, Ore., Archdiocese, where he was archbishop from 1986 to 1995.