Bishop Loverde Comments on Safe Environment Programs

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Bishop of Arlington
(From the issue of 2/12/04)

In recent weeks, the issue of providing personal safety (or safe environment) programs for children has been the focus of much discussion, debate, and even opposition. I have heard from many concerned members of the diocese, and a clarification and response are in order.

Allow me to begin with a personal example from my 1940s upbringing in a small town in Connecticut. In my early years, whenever I went out onto the streets or neighborhoods of Pawcatuck to play with my friends, there were at least "forty sets of eyes" watching us. On each side of our home and across the street lived caring and concerned neighbors. Around the corner, the retired fireman always sat on his front porch. My friends’ parents all lived within walking – or shouting – distance. Many of you probably look back on similar childhoods in which the caring and loving eyes of your community were upon you.

As you know, today our children face a different landscape. Less than two weeks ago, 11 year-old Carlie Brucia was tragically kidnapped and murdered in Sarasota, Florida. In the state of Virginia alone last year, over 46,000 children were reported as abused or neglected. Sadly, for many children, the safety net of watching eyes is not there.

Here in the Diocese of Arlington, we have long taken a proactive stance in preventing such threats to our children and we will continue to do so. Under my predecessor, Bishop John R. Keating, a strong sexual abuse and misconduct policy was put in place in 1991, which also required yearly seminars on the subject for all new clergy, diocesan employees and volunteers. These seminars covered the definition of child abuse, actions and policies that can be used to prevent child abuse, signs that one should look for to identify abuse, and what actions should be taken when child abuse is suspected. The Jan. 6 national compliance audit commended our diocese for developing and mandating these seminars "long before a requirement to do so existed."

As shepherd of this diocese, I am personally committed to continuing our diocese’s proactive stance as well as fulfilling the commitment I made 20 months ago when I and my brother bishops passed the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. In it, we took unprecedented steps to begin repairing the fabric of trust torn as a result of sexual abuse of minors by some clergy. The fact that some priests and bishops abused children is horrific and continues to cause much pain in our Church. The scandals also opened our eyes to the larger problem and reality of sexual abuse in our society.

And so, in Article 12 of the Charter, we bishops wrote, "Dioceses will establish ‘safe environment’ programs. They will cooperate with parents…" As clergy sexual abuse dominated our hearts, minds, and prayers, we bishops decided that along with accountability measures for ourselves and strict, national policies on dealing with clergy abuse, our Church also needed to take bold steps in cooperating with our faith communities to become educated on the reality and prevention of sexual abuse.

We bishops decided that it was incumbent upon all of us – beginning with parents, clergy, diocesan employees, contract employees, volunteers, youth, and children – to receive the information which would assist in creating untold numbers of new sets of protective eyes for our children.

"They will cooperate with parents…" Cooperation with parents in addressing this sensitive issue is crucial. As the Catechism states, parents are the "primary educators" of their children. Families are the "domestic church" in which their children first encounter the faith. In addressing the issue of educating children, parents bear the original and irreplaceable responsibility.

In recent weeks, many have asked whether Article 12 of the Charter, in which safe environment programs for both adults (clergy, diocesan employees and volunteers who have substantial contact with children) and children (as clarified by a letter of Nov. 19, 2003, from the USCCB) are mandated, violates this primary parental role. In particular, if children are taught in diocesan schools and religious education classes the personal safety skills to recognize and protect themselves from abuse, some have asked if the vital role of parents – the front-line educators of their children – is not thereby usurped.

Before turning to this and other questions, a word about how our diocese has responded to Article 12 over the past year is in order. As I mentioned earlier, our adult safe environment program, in place since 1991, has received the commendation of auditors. Responding to the requirement to offer personal safety programs for children, I asked diocesan staff to review available programs in the Spring of 2003. These staff recommended that the diocese consider a program used widely throughout the country entitled "Good Touch, Bad Touch" for the following reasons: 1) several of our diocesan schools already used the program and were satisfied with it, 2) it was financially reasonable, and 3) trained facilitators in the program lived locally thereby making training of our teachers easier.

When Catherine Nolan, MSW, former diocesan Victim Assistance Coordinator and Director of the Child Protection and Safety Program, began working for the diocese in mid-August, 2003, she requested that implementation of a personal safety program for children be slowed down in order to cooperate more fully with parents, clergy, and other members of the diocese on this issue. Aware that this delay would result in an "instruction" from auditors who assessed our diocese’s compliance with the Charter provisions last September, I supported Miss Nolan in soliciting additional input from parents, priests, and others on this issue in order to strengthen further any eventual implementation of a personal safety program.

Throughout the Fall, Miss Nolan crisscrossed the diocese, putting Arlington’s child protection efforts and awareness of the Charter on firmer ground by preparing for the audit, organizing meetings for priests, school principals, parents, and directors of religious education on this issue, visiting 40 of our 67 parishes, working with our Advisory Board on revising our background check policy, conducting numerous listening sessions, revamping our adult safe environment program to make it more parish-based and inclusive of parents, volunteers, and non-English speaking parishioners, and also by hosting two informational meetings with parents on Nov. 30, 2003, and Jan. 12, 2004.

What I and my staff have committed to from the beginning and what has been reinforced from this extensive dialogue with so many parents, priests, educators, and others were articulated criteria for children’s personal safety programs. Any program chosen by the diocese must: 1) respect the irreplaceable role of parents, who "have the first responsibility for the education of their children" [Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2223], 2) be fully in accord with our Catholic teachings on the dignity of the human person and morality, 3) be age-appropriate, 4) effective, and 5) not place the burden of protection on children.

In regard to our diocese’s initial consideration of "Good Touch, Bad Touch," I wrote in my Nov. 27^th Herald column that "if this program is selected for implementation, I can assure you that its contents, where needed, will be integrated with our Catholic understanding of the human person and of morality." In November 2003, I assigned our Secretary for Religious Education, Father Paul deLadurantaye, the task of examining whether the "Good Touch, Bad Touch" curriculum could be adapted to reflect Catholic teaching. At a January 12^th parents’ meeting in Manassas, Father deLadurantaye presented the context in which personal safety skills could be taught in our Catholic settings together with a draft of a sample lesson plan. Aware that many parents could not attend the meeting for various reasons, we made his entire presentation available on our diocesan website.

What has remained clear since the beginning of our dialogue on this issue is the fact that the Diocese of Arlington must continue to strengthen our existing child protection efforts first and foremost by creating new sets of eyes among children’s primary educators – their parents, as well as other adults who have contact with them.

To build on this dialogue and the child protection efforts we have made thus far, I am pleased to announce that we will be implementing a nationally renowned sexual abuse prevention program, "Protecting God’s Children," throughout our diocese beginning this Spring.

"Protecting God’s Children" is a positive, proactive program for adults designed by VIRTUS and the National Catholic Risk Retention Group. In use in over 75 other dioceses throughout the country, it will undoubtedly deepen our awareness of and develop skills for preventing child abuse. I am confident that this program – by providing parents and other adults with the tools to detect the warning signs of abuse, the ways to prevent abuse, the methods of properly reporting suspicions of abuse, and responding to allegations of abuse – will build upon the already-existing efforts of our diocese to protect our children. It is my hope that parents, with these tools, will be further equipped to broach the topic of abuse prevention with their children. I invite you to learn more about this program at www.VIRTUS.org.

Returning to the second aspect of the Charter requirement, that of personal safety programs for children, later this Spring, when VIRTUS makes available to dioceses its children’s personal safety program, I and my staff will review it along with other available Catholic programs to see which programs best meet the criteria mentioned above. While I will be in touch with you later about specific personal safety programs, suffice it to say that parents will be offered: 1) education on recognizing and responding to abuse and neglect; 2) information on talking to their children about abuse and neglect; 3) the right to preview any program offered to their children; and 4) parents will be the ones to decide whether or not they wish their child to participate.

Our children are God’s gift to us. We as Catholics live in a society where, tragically, sexual abuse is a reality. I readily admit that no program, however effective and Catholic, will completely eliminate sexual abuse. However, we must do all in our ability to provide everyone in our communities of faith with the resources, skills and tools to be protected as best they can. Anyone who sees children as our best hope for the future would want to take advantage of every available means of protecting our children.

In my first homily as Bishop of Arlington in 1999, I asked that you join with me in creating a Catholic life and witness in our diocese that is "unmistakably marked by evangelization, reconciliation, unity, and service." Today I ask you to join with me in praying that as our diocese moves forward with the "Protecting God’s Children" program, we will be unified in our endeavor to protect God’s gifts to us, our greatest treasure, our children.

Copyright ©2004 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.