William C. Wert, a 53-year old Catholic priest and a member of the Order of Carmelites, may have abused more children in the Venice area, according to law enforcement officials. Police found evidence on his computer that other children may have been victimized by the priest. Wert already faces eight charges ranging from lewd and lascivious on a child to committing a sex offense against a minor.
Wert was convicted of sexual abuse on a minor in Washington DC in 2007. According to the Carmelites, Wert was living in a Carmelite retirement home in Venice, just blocks away from Venice’s Epiphany Cathedral at the time of his arrest. While Fr. John Welch, the Carmelite supervisor in charge of Wert stated that he was living at the retirement home because it had “no proximity” to children, Ephiphany Cathedral School is a mere four blocks away from Wert’s residence.
The Diocese of Venice has said that Wert was not assigned to ministry in the Diocese of Venice and was therefore not responsible for him. However, the question remains-why wouldn’t the Carmelites and the Diocese of Venice discuss this and alert unsuspecting parents that a convicted sex abuser was living 4 blocks away from a Catholic school?