Church efforts continue to keep children safe

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

The National Child Abuse Prevention Month is celebrated annually in April to raise awareness and build collaboration in efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect.
During this month, it’s a fitting time to reflect on steps that continue to be taken by the Catholic Church to help keep children safe.

It was in 2002 when the United States Catholic Bishops developed the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People – commonly called the Dallas Charter – which required all dioceses to establish safe environment programs.

The Diocese of Sioux City selected Protecting God’s Children safe environment program by VIRTUS and by 2003 training and screening of adults working with children in the diocese began.

According to Dan Ellis, coordinator of the safe environment program in the Diocese of Sioux City, currently there are 4,991 active VIRTUS profiles in the diocese.

“These are people who in some have contact with children – staff and volunteers,” he said, noting that it includes all Catholic schools and parishes.

Ongoing efforts
To help remember the need to protect children, monthly bulletins provide updates on the topic.

“If you are registered with VIRTUS and have contact with children on a regular basis, you are required to read monthly bulletins sent to your (email) account by VIRTUS to keep you updated on information that has come out on child sexual abuse. It helps to keep it top of mind as you interact with children in parishes or schools,” said Ellis. 

When church/school employees or volunteers who work with children go through the VIRTUS process, a background check is completed. The safe environment coordinator said every five years it is required to have a rescreening. 

Ellis“Once someone initially gets a background check and it is approved, we do not know if they have committed offences that would potentially prohibit them from having contact with children unless we do periodic rescreens,” said Ellis, who acknowledged that it is very rare that offenses show up on rescreens but this requirement is one more layer of protection.

The national VIRTUS organization has provided materials to dioceses to assist in promoting Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Office of Safe Environment has given digital access of promotional materials to parishes and schools so they can partake in raising awareness. 

The main goal of safe environment programs in dioceses throughout the country is to ensure the safety of children and young people who are entrusted to the church’s care in parishes, schools and various programs.

Spotting abuse
This is not only done through screening church ministers, employees and volunteers who work with children, but Ellis said there is training to recognize and report child abuse that may be happening in the home or another environment.

The safe environment coordinator mentioned there is evidence to suggest that a certain number of children who experience some form of abuse be it physical, mental/emotional or sexual are enrolled in parish programs or Catholic schools just because of the mere numbers of cases of abuse.

“The diocese is interested in trying to identify those children and get them help,” he said, adding that there are also programs in place in Catholic schools and parish religious education programs to help educate children. “It’s to help them know what abuse is, if they have been abused or if someone is grooming them.”

By educating the youth, Ellis said it can give the children courage to say no or to go to a trusted adult. It can help the children to know that they are not at fault.

“We try to educate adults who are running the programs in schools or parishes to recognize children that have been abused one way or another,” said Ellis, who mentioned that neglect is part of abuse as well. “We are not interested in only preventing child sexual abuse but all forms of abuse.”

Information is also sent home to parents, he added, so they can talk to their children and reinforce prevention measures.

According to the National Children’s Alliance, the majority of child victims were abused by a parent or legal guardian. Three-fourths of the victims are neglected, 17% are physically abused, 11% are sexually abused and 0.2% are sex trafficked.

“Obviously, it’s part of the church’s mission to protect children or at least help identify children that have been potentially abused,” he said.

His parting words were, “Remain diligent in this effort because once you relax and don’t hold people accountable to the standards that the USCCB sets, then it creates an opportunity for a potential perpetrator to enter your system because they will know it and see it.”

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