The mission of the compliance office is to insure that the Diocese of Scranton strictly follows the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People as set forth by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

Charter compliance will be accomplished by:

• Insuring a thorough background screening is completed for all clergy, paid employees and volunteers supervising our children.  Background checks are good for three years.
• Providing training in recognizing and reporting any sign of child abuse to appropriate civil and Church authorities.
• By holding all clergy, all paid employees and all volunteers accountable to a Christ-centered, pastoral code of conduct.

Background Checks-

Background checks are conducted to meet the requirements for the Charter.  The background screening is limited to a search for:

1.      Verification of a person’s identity

2.      Existence of a prior criminal record

3.      Listing on any state sex offender registry 

To conduct the background check process the name, address, date-of-birth, and social security number is sent to LexisNexis, a national screening company, which verifies the person’s identity and searches their database of criminal records and sex offender registries for any potential matches.  They then send the results back to us.  This background screening does not give us access to any financial records. 

Procedures-

To complete a background check, fill out the Diocese of Scranton background application on link below and follow all instructions listed on the application. 

All individuals required to have a completed background check must also sign a pastoral code of conduct and attend the VIRTUS, Protecting God’s Children for Adults training.  Both the code and the training information can be found on the links below.

All of the clearances, signed pastoral codes and VIRTUS training records will be kept in the parish or school compliance binder.  The binders will be updated with current clergy and religious, paid employees and volunteers.  A separate inactive file will be kept for individuals no longer working in that parish or school.


Clearances are needed for:

• All clergy and religious
• All paid employees
• All volunteers who work 20 hours or more per year with children

Do not forget to include coaches, Boy Scout leaders in troops chartered by the parish, field trip chaperones, cafeteria and religious education aides.
 

Click on the tab below for a printable Code of Pastoral Conduct: 
Pastoral Code of Conduct

Click on the tab below for more information on: 
Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People
Child Protective Services Law

Click on the tab below for a printable Background Check Application:
Background Check Application