The Dioceses of Buffalo holds as its highest priority the safety and well-being of children.  With this in mind, all Catholic institutions in the Diocese of Buffalo must carefully adhere to the mandated Safe Environment policies with regard to recruiting, hiring, and training volunteers and paid staff who work with children and young people.

In 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People as a sign of their commitment to implement policies and practices that monitor and educate adults on the serious topic of child sexual abuse.  You may review the entire charter and diocesan policy by clicking on the Protection God's Children website.

Each parish catechetical leader, under the supervision of the pastor/pastoral administrator, is solely responsible for following diocesan policy and practice regarding staff and volunteers in parish religious education and youth programs.  A personnel file must be kept on each staff/volunteer containing documentation that the person has been properly screened according to diocesan policy.

Whether paid or volunteer, the catechetical leader much be sure that each of the following are completed prior to the start of service:

Uniform Volunteer (or staff) Application

Reference Check (Script Attached)

Code of Conduct

Criminal Background Check Request

Completion of the training program Protecting God's Children is also required within 90days from the start of service.  Information about upcoming classes and the registration process can be found on the diocesan "Protecting God's Children" website.

Once the above requirements have been met, each employee/volunteer is required to read continuing education articles supplied by the VIRTUS website.  Each person is responsible for updating and maintaining their own VIRTUS account as this is how parish compliance to these important regulations is monitored.  Each parish has a designated local administrator who can update records as needed. The catechetical leader (DRE) must inform them when a person is no longer serving so that their record can be inactivated.  If you would like to become the local safe environment administrator for your catechetical program (highly recommended) simply complete this form and submit it as indicated.

Non-compliance to these mandates is extremenely serious; it indicates a lack of commitment to the diocesan effort to create and maintain a safe environment for children and young people.  Those who do not have a current criminal background check on file or have failed to read a continuing education bulletin in the past 90 days risk having their account suspended.  Those with suspended accounts may not continue in their ministry (whether paid or volunteer) until their account has been brought up-to-date.  Those with suspended accounts must contact their local safe environment coordinator or the Safe Environment Office for details about rectifying this serious situation.

Please direct all questions regarding the implementation of these Safe Environment policies in parish faith formation programs to Sharon Urbaniak (716-847-5514) or Don Blowey.