Religion News Service reports that Monday's announcement that Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller will lead the congregation charged with church orthodoxy was immediately controversial, among survivors of clergy abuse and others:
Mueller has also raised eyebrows among conservatives for some of his connections to liberation theologians and his criticisms of schismatic traditionalists who Benedict is trying to woo back into the Roman fold.
Levada, who turned 76 in June, plans to retire to his hometown, Long Beach, Calif. He was archbishop of Portland from 1986-1995.
John L. Allen interviewed Levada, who rarely talked to the press, last month in National Catholic Reporter on the Vatican's scrutiny of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. At one point, Levada says, "Some of my best friends are nuns." He goes on:
They're a great grace in and for the church. But if they aren't people who believe and express the faith of the church, the doctrines of the church, then I think they're misrepresenting who they are and who they ought to be.
Now, "It's Mueller Time" (except he can type an umlaut) in the Vatican congregation, writes Rocco Palmo in his long-standing blog, "Whispers in the Loggia."