By Fr. Terry Specht
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 9/9/04)

The Diocese of Arlington is committed to creating a safe environment for children in all its activities and ministries, an environment where children and young people may be nurtured and protected and encouraged to grow in grace and wisdom. Creating and maintaining a safe environment for children requires the attention of all those who have a special ministry to youth in the diocese.

Since June over 1,500 employees and volunteers have received training through the Virtus program, "Protecting God’s Children" in forming such an environment. In the next three months, over 2,000 more will attend "Protecting God’s Children" and learn the common sense steps in protecting children from abuse. These steps include knowing the warning signs of abuse, controlling access to children, monitoring youth programs, being aware of what children are experiencing and communicating our concerns about inappropriate behavior.

The key elements in supporting these steps are background checks to help control access to children and training to increase awareness and a code of conduct. The code of conduct is an important tool allowing everyone involved in youth programs to clearly distinguish inappropriate behavior. The code allows all of us to work off the same page with the same understanding of what is expected, what is accepted and most importantly what will cause concern. It is a clear concise guide for those who work with children.

The other thing that the code of conduct will do is make it difficult for those who intend to harm children to continue behaviors that are integral to abuse. I like to tell people that a snake needs tall grass in which to hide. In this case, the tall grass is either the confusion in a community about what acceptable behavior is, or a climate in which a number of innocent adults may at times behave towards young people in an unwise fashion merely because they have not thought it through. A code of conduct cuts the tall grass, so to speak, and makes it impossible for a snake to remain invisible.

The diocese has had a code of conduct for clergy since January of this year. This code of conduct for clergy made clear how priests, deacons and seminarians were to deal with young people. My experience with this code was very positive. Its contents were well known by priests and were frequently used in conversation when discussing appropriate behaviors in upcoming events and activities. The weakness of the code of conduct for clergy was that its contents were not as familiar to others. It is important that everyone concerned with young people — those in ministry, volunteers and parents — have the same knowledge and the same expectations.

It was with this in mind that a collaborative effort was begun to incorporate what we had learned from the code of conduct for clergy into a universal code of conduct that would become a reference for everyone in the diocese. The Code of Conduct for the Diocese of Arlington was developed with input from priests, parents, youth ministers, Catholic schools and Catholic Charities.

What will happen if someone intentionally or inadvertently violates a standard of the code of conduct? Some requirements in the code are already part of state…in themselves against state law and certainly if one were to violate these then continued service would not be possible. Most are, however, common sense expectations. If they are not followed it would be cause for concern. It will enable us to communicate our concerns to each other and to correct mistakes and improve our service to children.

The code of conduct is a keystone in maintaining a safe environment for children. Some may find one or another of the standards as difficult and different from the way they are accustomed to acting. Given adequate reflection on these standards and with the goal of a nurturing and safe environment for children in mind the code will soon become part of a natural and proper relationship with young people.