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	Catholic Church in State Offering Training Intended to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse By Grace E. Merritt The Hartford Courant December 18, 2009 http://www.courant.com/news/priest-abuse/hc-church-abuse-training-1218.artdec18,0,4110505.story The Catholic church in Connecticut has been training thousands of priests, catechism teachers and other adults how to prevent, detect and report child sexual abuse. So far, more than 70,000 adults in parishes statewide have taken the church-sponsored training sessions, which were mandated by the U.S. Conference of Bishops in 2002 in response to allegations that thousands of priests nationwide had sexually abused children. A national report commissioned by the Conference of Bishops found 4,392 allegations of sex abuse by priests from 1950 to 2002. In many cases, the victims were ignored and clergy transferred to other parishes. The three-hour training program is mandatory for priests, teachers, school volunteers and even basketball coaches — every employee and volunteer working for the church. The Diocese of Bridgeport even requires church ushers, cleaning service staff and construction workers associated with the church to take the course. The training is part of reforms ordered by the church that also include a safety awareness program for children and criminal background checks for adults who interact with children. The Archdiocese of Hartford and Bridgeport diocese use a program called "VIRTUS — Protecting God's Children," developed by the church-affiliated National Catholic Risk Retention Group. Sessions are taught by a trained volunteer and include videos of victims and their families talking about how they were affected by abuse. In one video, a father whose daughter was molested by a priest talks about warning signs that were ignored and the people who knew something about the abuse but didn't say anything until it was too late. In another, sex offenders — a camp counselor and softball coach — talk about how they groomed their victims. "It's very enlightening and it can be disturbing," said Dolores Skovich, safe environment coordinator for the Hartford archdiocese. The training is designed to raise adults' awareness of child sex abuse with the goal of providing a safe environment. "People said, 'Why do I have to go through it? I'm not an abuser of children.' It's just that we would like our adults to be more sensitive, more aware of adults who are not safe for our children," Skovich said. The program tries to dispel myths about child abuse, such as the notion that abusers are usually strangers. In fact, 60 percent of child abuse is committed by someone who is known and trusted by the children and parents, said Erin Neil, director of safe environment and victim assistance coordinator at the Bridgeport diocese. The program explains how to detect a child abuser, noticing behavior such as adults who appear to go overboard touching children or always want to be around children and prefer their company to adults, Neil said. David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said that the training is helpful. "We would rather more people, not fewer, understand how to stop abuse and what to do when they spot it," he said. But he said the training does not address the underlying problem because it is still essentially being handled by the church. Clohessy said the program would be more effective it were run by police or some other secular authority and if church employees and others who helped hide the crimes were punished. It's too early to tell how well the program is working, especially because victims are often reluctant to report sexual abuse until years later. "The measure of prevention is over time," Neil said. "It's really going to be an increase in early reporting signs and decrease in abuse over time." David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center, said there is no conclusive scientific evidence that sexual abuse prevention programs work, but they do accomplish several goals. "It is more likely for the abuse to get reported," he said. "It also gives young people and family members valuable information about child maltreatment and what to do about it." And although some believe that the training sessions are helping, allegations continue to persist. As recently as last week, The Courant reported that the Bridgeport diocese in 2004 paid two men — who claimed that they were abused as teenagers by two still-active priests — $20,000 apiece not to file lawsuits against the diocese.
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