NATIONAL
News Updates
WORKING Group
Update – Protecting
Our Children
Protecting Our Children National Working Group Preparing
to Survey Child Protection Policies Within the Church
A year in preparation, the Protection of Children
National Parish Survey is soon to be sent to at least
one parish in each of the 194 dioceses and eparchies
in the United States (The U.S. Catholic Conference
of Bishops lists 18,992 parishes in the U.S.). VOTF
affiliates throughout the country, responding to a
draft survey, have contributed to the final version.
The goals of the “Protection of Children National
Parish Survey” are
-
to assess the implementation of parish Safe Environment
programs
- to gather data on diocesan support to parishes in preventing
child abuse
The analysis of Survey responses will be
-
sent to United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
National Review Board members,
- along with recommendations for ensuring the establishment
and implementation of Safe Environment programs
in every parish.
Your Participation:
The Protecting Our Children National Working Group
needs and welcomes more direct contacts with VOTF members
throughout the country. If you would like to participate
in the survey, please send your contact information
to protectchildwg@votf.org or to the Protecting Our
Children National Working Group, VOTF office, P.O.
Box 423. Newton Upper Falls, MA 02464.
We also value your comments and suggestions about
the POC link on the VOTF
website. In our continuing effort to keep the site current,
we want to know, and to incorporate, the views and
activities of our POC parish affiliates.
Watch for more details about the POC National Survey
of Safe Protection Policies and about other POC activities
in future issues of In the Vineyard.
Protecting Our Children Panel at October Meeting of
VOTF Upper Cape and South Coast, Massachusetts Affiliates
Panelist Paul F. Walsh, Jr., District Attorney for
Bristol County, reflecting on his experience dealing
with clergy sexual offenders and those abused by clergy,
noted the push for more legal accountability. He urged
public awareness and education about pedophile behavior,
symptoms of sexual abuse, and ways to protect children.
He called on citizens to help raise public consciousness
of the vulnerability of children, in particular the
dangers posed by pedophiles over the Internet. The
DA’s office in Bristol County has created an
Internet-safety program.
Larry Finnerty, PhD., Assistant Superintendent of
the New Bedford Schools, focused on the overlap between
the Department of Social Services mandate to protect
children and the mandate of schools to educate children.
With a reminder that teachers must report suspicion
of child abuse to DSS by completing a 51A form, he
called for interagency collaboration to ensure safety
and protection.
Patricia T. Gomez, PhD., representing Protecting Our
Children VOTF National Working Group, talked about
the mission and goals of POC. She called on the laity
to work within their parishes to ensure that Safe Environment
programs are in place. The mandates of the Bishops’ charter
require that every parish have a Safe Environment program
for adult abuse prevention training and child personal
safety training. POC urges parishes to adopt a protection
of children policy and establish a Code of Conduct
for volunteers and ministers. The web page of POC on
VOTF.org lists resources to help the laity set up these
safeguards in their parishes. POC also recommends that
parishes establish Safe Environment committees to oversee
both the collection of criminal background checks and
the distribution (and acknowledgement) of Codes of
Conduct by all whose ministry or volunteer work brings
them in contact with children. POC is currently in
the process of surveying parishes around the country
about their Safe Environment programs.
Arlene McNamee, LCSW, Director of Social Services
for the Fall River Diocese, described the work of her
diocese for child protection since 1994. She oversees
all parish training of adults and children; her office
posts all diocesan policies on their web page. Her
diocese uses four curricula for child personal safety
training. Her office oversees parish audits, which
check employee records, CORI checks, and volunteer
records of training; she reports a high level of compliance
to date. She reiterated the need for parents to be
aware of their children’s use of the Internet
and warned about real dangers of unmonitored access.
The USCCB web page has resources for Internet protection.
Carmen D’Urso, Esq., Boston attorney representing
survivors of clergy sexual abuse, explained that the
large number of children abused by a priest was due
to priests’ privileged access to children and
their position of authority. He recommended that teaching
about sexuality in seminaries be revised and that changes
be made in state legislation to protect the rights
of survivors to accuse their abusers. He proposed that
civil and criminal statures of limitations for reporting
abuse should be eliminated.
Bob Moll of the Upper Cape VOTF served as moderator.
[Patricia Gomez also represented POC National VOTF
at the November National Representative Council Meeting
in St. Louis. Along with POC web page printouts – POC
Action Initiative #2: “Working to Insure That
Your Parish Is Safe” and Cynthia Crossen-Tower’s
guide for assessing the safety of a parish – Pat
distributed copies of the “POC National Working
Group Survey of Child Protection Policies Within the
Church.” She asked that the survey be completed
and sent, with comments and suggestions, either by
email to protectchildwg@votf.org or by regular mail
to the National office in Newton. Pat’s audience
was enthusiastic, many expressing surprise at the availability
of “positive action that we can recommend to
all of our affiliates and members.”]
NATIONAL Representative Council Meeting Update
November 10-12, 2006, St. Louis, MO
The semi-annual meeting of Voice of the Faithful’s
National Representative Council (NRC) met at a retreat
house outside St. Louis. Seventeen Representatives
and four voting alternatives, plus all four of the
Officers attended the meeting.
Much of the meeting was taken up with small group
discussions and brainstorming sessions. On Friday evening,
the newly formed Council Committees met to begin organizing
themselves and to identify the issues they would tackle
and how to work together going forward. On Saturday,
participants and St. Louis observers met again in five
small groups to identify priorities for VOTF beyond
the two Accountability Campaigns now under way. The
Council will be discussing this list of priorities
on the internet and will reduce them to three shortly
after the new year.
Mary Pat Fox, VOTF President, addressed the Council
with her vision of the future. Her presentation can
be found on the website (pdf).
Other speakers were Brad Pritts, chair of VOTF Financial
Accountability
Advisors, who addressed the Council on the intricacies
of monitoring financial statements and the importance
of having lay people actively involved in budgeting
at both the parish and diocesan levels. David Clohessy,
National Director of Survivors Network of those Abused
by Priests (SNAP), addressed the group about the importance
of working to extend both civil and criminal statutes
of limitations in order to protect children.
Representatives from each of the fourteen Regions
made reports on the work of VOTF in their regions.
This was a very encouraging and uplifting part of the
meeting, because it became clear that VOTF affiliates
and members throughout the country are making progress
to advance the mission and goals of VOTF.
Ray Joyce, Executive Director of VOTF, reported that
we have a balanced budget this year, but that if we
are to accomplish all the works we have on our plates,
we have to dramatically increase our income. He also
indicated that the website redesign is well under way,
and should be completed early in the new year.
Several resolutions were considered, including two
on Accountability matters that had been presented earlier
on-line by Frank Douglas. They were remanded to the
Mission and Goals Committee for further editing and
will be voted on after the first of the year. However,
at the request of Kris Ward, one section of the resolution
on legislation to protect children was unanimously
approved. This motion was made to assist VOTF members
in their efforts to attend a secret Vatican trial being
held in Erie PA. The motion states:
“The NRC hereby adopts the section of the proposal
which says: ‘Church officials should promptly inform the public by all means possible of cases known, admitted,
or credibly accused abusive clergy that have been submitted to the Vatican,
and should keep the public up to date on the progress and disposition of the
cases.’”
The four Officers subsequently added their concurrence
to this vote.
A resolution, presented by Jim Jenkins, concerning
the promotion, distribution and viewing of the film “Deliver
Us from Evil” was also voted unanimously. A vote
was also taken to strike the word “Lay” from
the Position Description for Representatives to the
Council. The vote was 20 to 1 in favor.
In the final evaluation, all participants agreed that
this was a successful meeting and that we are beginning
to come together as an organization focused on common
goals.
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