- Download PDF Version available for use with email and print distribution.
To: Pastors, priests, parish administrators, business managers, parish secretaries, principals, school business managers, school secretaries, Safe Environment coordinators, catechetical leaders, directors of religious education, youth ministers, chancery staff, seminarians, deacons, deacons in formation, parochial vicars, bookkeepers, parish ministry coordinators, campus ministers
From: Jenni Weldin, Director, Safe Environment
Safe Environment compliance is required for ALL clergy, employees & volunteers working with minors and/or vulnerable individuals in keeping with requirements of the Charter for the Protection of Young People. (https://www.usccb.org/offices/child-and-youth-protection/charter-protection-children-and-young-people)
This is the minimum guideline set forth by the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Pastors may choose to have additional requirements. The archbishop, auxiliary bishops and the Office of Child and Youth Protection support pastors in their decisions regarding additional requirements for Safe Environment compliance.
To be Safe Environment compliant a person must have passed a background screening through the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Sterling platform and have attended an in-person three-hour VIRTUS Protecting God’s Children training session.
Both the background screening and the VIRTUS training are good for five years.
Individuals will be notified by the Safe Environment Coordinator at their location when it is time to renew their background screening.
Two weeks prior to the five-year renewal date of a person’s live VIRTUS session an online renewal module will be assigned automatically to a person’s VIRTUS account.
All Archdiocese of Atlanta Safe Environment policies and procedures can be found here: https://archatl.com/ministries-services/safe-environment/policies-and-procedures/.
