Fr. German’s Message
Everyone has heard of the scandals
of abused children and about the measures adopted by the American Church to
protect children and to prevent this from reoccurring in our society.
From some years the church has been requiring a special training for
priests, religious men and women, workers, catechists, readers, Eucharistic
ministers, aides who welcome people before the mass, volunteers, members of the
pastoral and economic development councils and, in general, all adults who are
around the parish or catholic schools in contact with children.
This special training, called VIRTUS, teaches us to detect the signs
displayed by children who have been victimized or who are experiencing a situation
of sexual, physical or moral abuse.
Virtus helps us to know the procedure to follow and the professionals
that need to be contacted when a child is in
danger. It helps us to detect odd, suspicious or
ambiguous
behaviors in some adults. Virtus
also helps us to prevent cases of abuse around us that might be unnoticed. The
training must be updated every two years.
Those who participate in the Virtus program must also submit their
fingerprints to enable the church to prevent people with a record of child
abuse in other cities or countries from coming into our parishes or schools and
getting in contact with potential victims.
Both, the Virtus training and the fingerprinting, are MANDATORY for anyone working
(paid or unpaid) in parishes and catholic schools who, in one way or another,
are in contact with children participating in activities proposed by the parish
or school.
For the children of the catechism, the children and youth in catholic
schools, the youth preparing for the sacrament of confirmation, the members of
a group of young people, and for the parents, the church proposes a training
program called "GOOD TOUCH / BAD TOUCH”. This program helps parents,
children and young people to detect inadequate behaviors of certain adults and
to prevent potential abuse. Throughout this program, adults, children and young
people learn about the steps to take to prevent child abuse or to report when
abuse has already occurred.
This year, for all adults that participate in the life of our parish, we
will have the VIRTUS training in English on Saturday November 12 from 9am to 12pm (noon) and, in Spanish, on Saturday October
29 from 9am to 12pm (noon).
We remind you that this training is strictly mandatory and if you don’t
receive it in our parish, you must go and get a diploma of participation in
another parish so that you may continue with your active participation in the
activities of the parish.
To participate, you must register with the parish office no later than
two weeks before the start of the program so that we can order the materials
that each attendant receives during training.
Registration is required by October 8 for the training program in
English, and by October 15 for the training program in Spanish. We kindly
request a fee of $ 5.00 per adult.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with
one of the sisters in the parish or with me.
I invite you to participate in this training to help us in the
prevention of potential cases of child abuse. Never again should any child be a victim of abnormal behaviors of adults related with the
church.
Have a great week
Fr. Germán September 24th / 25th
2011