Seems the Catholic Church is stepping up efforts to keep miscreants out, or at least in Springfield, Missouri. The Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese is strengthening background check measures as part of a push to ensure sexual predators don’t gain access to Church positions, and to respond to those who have suffered abuse. It seems the abuse scandal engulfing the Catholic Church just keeps dragging on. So this measure may also help repair a badly mauled public image.
It not only includes new diocese employees and volunteers, but also those who currently hold positions. Those in regular contact with children have until December 2 to undergo the new background check process. It includes crosschecking individuals through several multijurisdictional agencies. In the past this included the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Criminal and Sex offender database, and the state’s sex offender registry. Obviously, this is no longer sufficient due to a sharp increase in interstate travel and the ease of relocation. Plus, criminals can and do move around to escape a sordid past.
The new employment background check process is executed through AmericanChecked Inc., a background check company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It will include a scan of the National Sex Offender registry, Homeland Security databases, as well as state and local sources, according to Karen Pesek, diocesan Safe Environment coordinator.
In past articles I have mentioned the increased digitization of records as well as the increased cooperation among the various agencies involved. The time span for this new procedure is a perfect example of this. In the past, the Missouri highway patrol needed up to 6 weeks to process and return a background check. Through AmericancChecked, the diocese now receives the background check results in as little as 72 hours.
Pesek said the screening has proved highly effective: “It does put up a barrier for those who might want to abuse children. We are strict about our process.” She even stated there were incidents where the potential volunteers just “disappeared” when they heard about the new intensive background check procedure. “We’ve had several times where they go from one Catholic Church to another and they aren’t hired,” she said. “I feel it has worked.”
I am very happy a system is being established whereby those with nefarious purposes will be denied employment or a volunteer opportunity, and also that public perception of the Catholic Church will no doubt improve. It’s a long overdue improvement, but better now than never. There are about 2,300 educators, staff, and volunteers in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese, and Pesek couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say if any of them had been flagged.
You may be interested to know that this background checking system is not unique to the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese. Parishes and schools all over the United States Catholic Church system are working hard to implement stricter background check procedures as part of the “VIRTUS: Proctecting God’s Children” awareness program. This program was adopted in June of 2002 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in an attempt to address the many allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.
