By Elder Samaniego
By June 30 of last year, per our required annual diocesan safe environment audit, 25,828 children and youth were accounted for as participants in diocesan parish and school programs. The year before the COVID-19 pandemic, 41,092 children and youth were accounted for in that audit; this year’s numbers aren’t in yet, but we are expecting a considerably higher amount than last year because things are for the most part back to normal.
These numbers show that our parishes and schools are sacred hubs for Catholic children and youth going through sacramental preparation, youth ministry programs, Catholic school education, altar server ministry, children’s and youth choirs, vacation Bible school and many other ministries and programs offered for minors throughout the Diocese of San Bernardino. Amid all of this grace and pastoral action our Church pours out and dedicates to our children and youth, their safety and wellbeing is at the core of it all.
For the last 21 years, the Catholic Church has learned to put every child’s wellbeing at the center of everything it does. In 2002, the Catholic world, both here in the U.S. and abroad, was abruptly shaken and awakened by story after story of cases of clergy abuse of minors and irresponsible actions of bishops relocating sex-offender priests. That same year, the US. Bishops gathered in Dallas, Texas, to urgently draft a comprehensive response to such an abhorrent reality.
Out of that gathering in Dallas came the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons. This document expressed the commitment and responsibilities of the U.S. Catholic Bishops to protect children and youth from abuse and to reach out and embrace victims coming forward, as well as to care for their wellbeing. Among the different articles of the Charter, the U.S. Bishops acknowledged the need for dioceses to maintain safe environment programs, have policies and procedures in place to protect children and respond promptly to any allegations. These “Charter initiatives” morphed into offices throughout U.S. dioceses that would take the lead in overseeing these local best practices established by bishops.
Here in the Diocese of San Bernardino, Bishop Emeritus Gerald Barnes immediately created the Office of Charter Initiatives, later called the Office of Child and Youth Protection. Since 2003, this office has been charged with the responsibility of designing and implementing diocesan safe environment best practices for the protection of minors through the propagation of safe environment policies, comprehensive safe environment training, safe environment auditing, background checks and the accompaniment of abuse victims.
Today’s Office of Child and Youth Protection is made up of an Office Director, an Associate Director, an Administrative Secretary and an Office Assistant. But it takes more than that to keep 25,000 to 40,000 children and youth safe in the Diocese of San Bernardino. It takes every priest, seminarian, deacon, religious sister and brother, employee, volunteer and parent to knit this protective safety-net; it takes a good-willed collaboration between diocesan offices, parishes, schools and families. Our diocesan commitment to protect children and youth stems from the U.S. Bishops’ concern and commitment back in 2002, but should also stem from our hearts and minds concerned for the safety and wellbeing of our children and young people. During this month of April, National Child Abuse Prevention Month, let us all renew our personal commitment, as clergy, religious, employees, volunteers and parents, to the protection of our children and young people. St. Joseph, Protector of the Christ Child, pray for us!
Elder Samaniego is the Director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection