Document Archive

The Catholic Standard and Times
Lou Baldwin, Staff Writer

Making Youth Protection a Habit of the Heart
5 June 2003

It’s tough being a parent. Who do you trust? What do you tell your kids? Is that friendly coach or curate just a nice guy or might he have something not very nice on his mind? Is recent news making you paranoid or justifiably concerned?

For Evelyn Brannan Tarpey, recently appointed archdiocesan Coordinator of Safe Environment Programs, educating people in these areas is a new mission.

“This is something the entire Roman Catholic Church in the United States will be doing,” she said. “The bishops have decided this is the best way to go.”

As the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, issued by the bishops last June, makes clear, its provisions concern not only clergy, but anyone in a parish, school or church agency. This includes employees or volunteers whose work brings them in regular contact with children. All such employees and volunteers must undergo mandatory training and will be subject to criminal background checks and sexual abuse background checks.

“I coordinate the junior and senior high school programs at St. Bernadette Parish (Drexel Hill) so I have to do this too,” Tarpey said. “I’m going to have to be trained and have background checks because of my parish activities. This will include youth ministers (and) coaches. It goes deep into the ranks of volunteers.”

The mother of three children, ages 19, 15 and 10, Tarpey has a personal as well as a professional interest in the implementation of this program. “The parents in my community are glad to hear the charter is being taken seriously and implemented.”

Training sessions for parish personnel will probably take about a full day, she estimated, and should begin in late summer and continue through the fall. After that, they will be ongoing, because there are always new employees or volunteers who will need the training.

Trainers will be drawn from professional staff and archdiocesan offices, Tarpey said. Training sessions will be scheduled in vicariates and clusters. Because people have different personal schedules, the times and locations will be publicized so affected staff and volunteers can find one that best suits them, not necessarily the one closest to home. “We hope to post the training schedule on the archdiocesan Web site as well as The CS&T’s Web site,” Tarpey said.

Parents, church workers and volunteers who do not have direct church contact with children will also be encouraged to attend the training sessions, Tarpey noted.

“They understand what appropriate behavior is. The more eyes that see, the better,” she said. “This is not just a clergy issue, it’s for all people.”

As a guideline for training, she cites what has become her bible -- a paper sent last November to all of the bishops by Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the U.S. Bishops Office for Child and Youth Protection.

Training for adults, McChesney wrote, should include answers to the following questions:
A. What constitutes child abuse, including sexual abuse?
B. What actions, procedures and policies are used to prevent child abuse in any form?
C. How does an adult identify instances of abuse of a child, including sexual abuse?
* What signs should an adult look for in a child who may be abused?
* What signs should an adult look for in a person who may be abusing a child in any way?
D. What actions should an adult take when he or she believes child abuse, to include sexual abuse, may be occurring?
E. What are the laws and policies regarding the reporting of abuse, to include sexual abuse of children?

While formal archdiocesan training on safe environment is new, background checks, in many cases, are not. Some, if not most, parishes have already been requiring them for certain personnel, just as all social workers and teachers have been routinely subject to such checks.

“We must educate people involved about the charter,” Tarpey said. “Being asked to get a background check should not be taken personally. It’s a partnership to provide a safe place for children.”

The checks can be done rather quickly -- the criminal background check is practically all online; the child abuse check is cut and dry as well, but it must be initiated by the individual and then submitted to the parish. Also, parishes and other entities will have to maintain confidential files for information received through the checks.

“The safe environment program is also protecting people’s reputation,” Tarpey said. “Things that are really no one’s business and do not impact someone’s relationship with children, we certainly have to safeguard that as well.”

The ultimate goal is to make the safe environment program “a habit of the heart,” Tarpey said. “It will become part of what we do. New volunteers will understand what documentation they have to provide. It may help parishes fine-tune their programs because everyone (having contact with children) will have the ministerial code of conduct. It’s a reminder of how we are supposed to act with young people.”