Children Are a Gift of God

Psalm 127:3

Since 2002, the Church in the United States has experienced a crisis without precedent in our times. The sexual abuse of children and young people by some deacons, priests, and bishops and how these crimes and sins were addressed, have caused enormous pain, anger, and confusion. As bishops, we have acknowledged our mistakes and roles in that suffering. We apologize and retake responsibility for failing victims and the Catholic people in the past too often. From the depths of our hearts, we bishops express great sorrow and profound regret for what the Catholic people have endured.

The 2011 revision of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People re-affirmed our deep commitment to creating a safe environment within the Church for children and youth. We have listened to the profound pain and suffering of those victimized by sexual abuse and will continue to respond to their cries.

Each year, dioceses in the United States undergo an external audit by Stonebridge Business Partners, an independent auditing firm. The audit is designed to measure each diocese's compliance with the guidelines of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The results of the external audits are published by the Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection every year.

• Awareness Session: A Protecting God’s Children Awareness Session can now be taken online or a live training program directed by a trained facilitator can be taken.
• Bulletins: All those trained have the option of receiving the timely and brief bulletins on-line if they have a computer, or receiving them by mail. If received by mail, bulletins will need to be returned to the Diocese to receive credit for completing the bulletin(s). Each bulletin ends with a question to ensure the reader understands the main point of the material.
• The purpose of the bulletins is to provide reinforcement of the original material provided in the initial training and to remind people of the problem of child sexual abuse and ways to prevent it.
• Diocesan Employees, Parish Employees, Directors of Religious Education, Youth Ministers, and School faculty and staff are required to complete bulletins for the duration of their employment or service and complete a recertification review.
• Bulletins: Other trainees are required to complete a follow-up process of reading one brief bulletin each month for a total of twenty-four and a recertification review.
• Electronic background checks are required for all employees and those volunteers who have any contact with children in the performance of their volunteer duties and will be renewed every five years. In addition, fingerprint background checks are required for school employees and some school volunteers (contact your school principal for more information).

PGC awareness sessions are held on the first Tuesday of each month from June - to November or as needed. All sessions are stored in the Fr. John K. Bain Pastoral Center (parish hall) at 6:30 pm. Classes are determined by enrollment. All who wish to take this session must register online.

Please register on VIRTUS Online,   If you have any questions or need help in registering, please contact Jan Roman-Gonzales, your parish PGC coordinator at janromangonzales@sbcglobal.net.

You may also contact the Safe Environment Office in the Diocese of Reno at:

safeenvironment@catholicreno.org  (English and Spanish)

775-326-9445 English

775-326-9420 Spanish

Report Abuse Victim’s Assistant Coordinator 844-669-8911

https://www.highdesertcatholic.org/safeenvironment/report-abuse/

Safe Environment Program

From the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Child & Youth Protection

From the National Catholic Risk Retention Group:

VIRTUS Online

3 year old