Rev. William C. Wehrle, s.j.-Assignment Record

Assignment Record – Rev. William C. Wehrle, s.j.

Summary of Case: William C. Wehrle was a Jesuit of the Maryland Province, ordained in 1950. His assignments took him to the archdioceses of Baltimore MD, Washington DC and Omaha NE, as well as to the Pittsburgh and Denver dioceses. In 1985 Wehrle was accused of sexual abuse; he was removed from his Woodstock, MD parish and resurfaced two years later in Pittsburgh, PA. He died in 1995.

Ordained: 1950
Died: Aug. 25, 1995

Start	Stop	Parish/Assignment	Town/Accusations	State/Country	Position	Notes
1950 Baltimore archbishop Francis Patrick Keough (1947-1961).	1951	Sacred Heart	Woodstock	MD
1951 Albany bishop was Edmund Francis Gibbons (1919-1954).	1952	Our Lady of Martyrs	Auriesville	NY	Jesuit tertianship
1952 Baltimore archdiocese	1960	Our Lady of the Wayside	Chaptico	MD	5/5 In residence.
1952	1957	Holy Angels	Avenue	MD		This was a "filial parish" of Our Lady of the Wayside in Chaptico.
1952	1957	Sacred Heart	Bushwood	MD		This was a "filial parish" of Our Lady of the Wayside in Chaptico.
1952	1957	St. Joseph's	Morganza	MD		This was a "filial parish" of Our Lady of the Wayside in Chaptico.
1952	1960	Immaculate Conception	Mechanicsville	MD	1/1	This was a "filial parish" of Our Lady of the Wayside in Chaptico.
1960 Washington DC archbishop was Patrick Aloysius O'Boyle (1947-1973).	1966	St. Ignatius	Hilltop	MD	1/1
1960	1966	Sacred Heart	La Pata	MD	In residence.	Sacred Heart had a high school with 165-180 students.
1960	1966	St. Catherine of Alexandria	McConchie	MD		This was a mission of St. Ignatius in Hilltop.
1966	1971	Holy Trinity	Washington	DC	4/7, 3/6, 3/7, 3/5	Holy Trinity had a grade school with 176-253 students, and a high school with 226-283 students.
1971 Pittsburgh bishop was Vincent Martin Leonard (1969-1983).	1972	Jesuit Residence	Pittsburgh	PA		The residence was at 1817 Mary St.
1972	1973	Pittsburgh Hospital	Pittsburgh	PA	chaplain
1973 Omaha archbishop was Daniel Eugene Sheehan (1969-1993).	1974	Creighton University	Omaha	NE
1974 Denver bishop was James Vincent Casey (1967-1986).	1976	St. Louis	Denver	CO	2/2	St. Louis had a school with 250-237 students.
1976	1980	St. Therese	Aurora	CO	2/2	St. Therese had a school with 465-410 students.
1980	1981	St. James	Denver	CO	2/3	St. James' had a school with 275 students.
1981	1982					Wehrle is not indexed in the 1982 Directory.
1982 Baltimore archbishop was William Donald Borders (1974-1989).	1985	St. Alphonsus Rodriguez	Woodstock • Wehrle was accused of sexual abuse in the mid-1980s and removed from St. Alphonsus.	MD	2/2
1985	1986					Wehrle is not indexed in the 1986 Directory.
1986 Leonard was succeeded as Pittsburgh bishop by Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua (1983-1987), followed by Donald William Wuerl (1988-2006).	1993	SS. Peter and Paul	Pittsburgh	PA	3/3, 2/2, 2/3 In residence.
1993	1995	St. Charles Lwanga	Pittsburgh	PA	4/6 In residence.	SS. Peter and Paul consolidated with 5 other parishes to form St. Charles Lwanga. Wehrle died Aug. 25, 1995.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (New York: P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1951-1996)

• Archdiocese's list of clergy accused of child sexual abuse, Baltimore Sun, September 26, 2002
• Victims to Leaflet Catholic Cathedral, SNAP, May 16, 2014

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Wehrle's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with allegations as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on July 15, 2014.