Serving San Francisco, Marin and the Peninsula
My Dear People, April has been designated “Child Abuse Prevention” month, and I’d like to take the opportunity to acquaint you with the efforts of this Archdiocese to maintain a Safe Environment for our children. In response to the US Catholic Bishops’ Charter on Children and Young People, “Promise to Protect: Pledge to Heal”, we have inaugurated policies and procedures to create the framework for such an environment. As of March 22, 2008, we have provided education on how to “Recognize, Report and Prevent Child Abuse” (the name of our on-line course) to 10,931 adults who work with children in our parishes and schools. In addition, we have fingerprinted 9,177 and background checked another 3,522. We have also mandated and provided training programs for our children and young people, from kindergarten through high school, in our Catholic schools and parish Religious Education programs. Our Independent Review Board, made up mostly of professionally trained lay persons, continues to provide excellent service to the Archdiocese of San Francisco in reviewing our response to reports of abuse and overseeing development of policy regarding the protection of children and youth. We recently acknowledged that in last year’s audit of these efforts, we were found not to be in full compliance with two articles of the Bishops’ Charter. We were unable to show that we had trained a sufficiently high percentage of the adults who work with children, nor that we had evaluated (either finger printed or background checked) enough of these people. Our record keeping processes had not kept pace with the changing face of our growing response to this issue. We did not have sufficient data to assist our parishes and schools to clearly identify which staff and volunteers required action, and we could not accurately report what had already been done. I created the Office of Child and Youth Protection, now led by Deacon John Norris, to respond to this shortcoming. This office is building on the good work already done by the various offices in the Pastoral Center, and promises to provide more assistance to parishes and schools by way of simplified processes, more consistent communication, and improved data management. The results are showing already. We now produce a clearer picture of each parish or school’s status. This will enable our pastors and principals to complete the task of educating all employees and volunteers and evaluating their backgrounds. It enables us to accurately report what has and what has not been done. We expect that by June 30 we will be able to report full compliance. By 2002 when we Bishops wrote the Charter to respond to the sexual abuse crisis in our Church, this Archdiocese had already implemented education programs to address the problem and had extended a welcome to those who needed to report instances of abuse. Today, we continue to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that required by the Charter. We evaluate more people in more stringent ways than is required by law or by the Charter, and we offer the training to anyone who wants to take advantage of it. © USCCB used with permission We pledge to you that this effort will not stop. It will continue so that as volunteers come and go, as employees leave for jobs in other places and new ones replace them, our policies and procedures will keep our children safe. If you’d like more information, please check our website www.sfarchdiocese.org. As you check it, please be aware that the website is being redeveloped and will evolve. The data on the site regarding our response to sexual abuse of children also changes, so please visit the website often. You can email Deacon Norris at norrisj@sfarchdiocese.org. Your questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome, and your questions will be answered with candor. Abuse occurs throughout society, not just in the Church. You can take pride in what we Catholics are doing to address this major societal problem. We have taken a strong position of leadership in countering child abuse and we will continue to do so.
Sincerely yours in Christ, Most Reverend George Niederauer Archbishop of San Francisco
T HE C HARTER FOR THE P ROTECTION OF C HILDREN
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Y OUNG P EOPLE
First written by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 in response to the sex abuse scandal in the Church, the Charter was revised in June of 2005 and is scheduled to be reviewed again in 2010. The Charter addresses the problem of sex abuse from the standpoint of the victim and directs each Bishop to respond to those victims (Article 1). It mandates the training of all children as well as all adults who are involved with children on behalf of the Church (Article 12). Those who have more regular contact with children must have their backgrounds evaluated prior to being allowed that contact. Evaluation is done in this Archdiocese by fingerprinting (Live Scan, or digital fingerprinting) and by electronic database inquiry. The Charter, without its preamble or its conclusion, is printed in this supplement. The entire document is available on the Archdiocesan website: www.sfarchdiocese.org.
VICTIMS ASSISTANCE COORDINATOR : (415) 614-5506 April 4, 2008
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
VOLUME 10
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No. 11