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http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005/12/17/news/local/doc43a3b45ec38dc453164141.txt
Saturday, December 17, 2005, 11:02 a.m.
By Dustin Lemmon, Quad Cities Times

The Catholic Diocese of Davenport has lost contact with a former Quad-City area priest accused of sexually abusing children.

Davenport attorney Rand Wonio, a legal representative of the diocese, said Deacon David Montgomery recently was sent to St. Louis to find the Rev. William Wiebler.
Montgomery went to Wiebler’s residence and the bakery where he worked, but he was not at either location, Wonio said. Montgomery could not be reached for comment by the Quad-City Times.
The diocese does not have the legal authority to confine Wiebler to any area, but it has been trying to keep track of him, Wonio explained.
“It’s a frustrating situation because we really have no legal power over him,” he said. The diocese is “concerned that he’s running around loose in St. Louis.”
Bishop William Franklin has asked the Vatican to laicize or defrock Wiebler and four other priests over allegations of sexual abuse. Wiebler left the Quad-Cities in 1985 and has been accused of abuse dating to the 1970s and 1980s.
According to the diocese, Wiebler has admitted sexually abusing several minors, but he has never been criminally charged or convicted.
The diocese has ordered Wiebler to stay in a treatment program and avoid contact with minors, Wonio said, but he has not cooperated with the church’s efforts to monitor him and has left the treatment program.
Wonio said Wiebler moved to the St. Louis area more than a year ago.
“We know the Archdiocese of St. Louis didn’t want him there,” Wonio added. “We sent a letter to the prosecuting attorney in St. Louis just to let them know he was there.”
Wonio said the Vatican returned the diocese’s application to laicize Wiebler, saying that it needed additional information on which to base a decision. The diocese submitted more information and returned the application, but it has yet to receive a reply from the Vatican, he added.
Last month, a default order was entered against Wiebler after he failed to show up for a Scott County District Court hearing in one of the lawsuits filed against him, said Craig Levien, the Quad-City attorney representing the plaintiffs.
Levien said a hearing will be scheduled soon to discuss the amount of damages in the case. He and other advocates for victims of sexual abuse by priests are upset by Wiebler’s disappearance, Levien added.
“One of our concerns for the safety of everyone is that we don’t know where he is,” he said. Since Wiebler has not been convicted of sexual abuse, “he wouldn’t be listed on anything” such as a sex offender registry, Levien added.
It is unlikely Wiebler could vanish and reappear somewhere else as an active priest, Wonio said. Wiebler would need to present his faculties, a letter confirming his authority within the church, something he no longer has, Wonio explained.
“It would be difficult for him to pass himself off as a priest,” he said.
Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.