abusers shrouded in secrecy.



In an open letter to the archbishop in November, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, urged Levada to withdraw his name as a candidate to replace outgoing Bishop Wilton D. Gregory as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (In subsequent balloting, Levada finished near the bottom of 10 bishops vying for the post.)



As San Francisco's archbishop and earlier as bishop of Portland, Ore., Levada has allowed priests to remain in active ministry who, he knew, were accused of molesting children. In a deposition in connection with a Portland case last year, Levada acknowledged having reinstated an Oregon priest, Father Joseph Bacallieri, to parish ministry in 1994, barely two years after sending him to a treatment program for childmolesters.



Levada has disclosed knowing of sex allegations against Ingels since mid-1996. Yet Ingels' career flourished until Hallinan demanded church sex abuse records.



With Levada's blessing, Ingels served as an adjunct professor at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park and performed parish duties at St. Bartholomew Church in San Mateo while maintaining his high-profile role as a canon lawyer. Levada appointed Ingels director of formation for the Permanent Diaconate, entrusting him with the job of supervising church deacons within the 425,000-member archdiocese. Even after prosecutors learned of sex complaints that turned up in Ingels' church files and Levada finally removed him from public ministry, the archbishop allowed Ingels to continue his work for the Archdiocesan Tribunal, helping adjudicate annulment cases.



Perhaps the biggest single blow to Levada's credibility on the sex