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	Diocese: Clergy, Most Staff Have Cleared Review By Kathryn Marchocki The Union Leader April 21, 2006 http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Diocese%3A+Clergy%2C+most+staff+ have+cleared+review&articleId=17e574b4-ac85-4d40-b7ee-042d8422ae22 Manchester - The Diocese of Manchester yesterday released figures showing all clergy and most volunteers and staff who work with children underwent required criminal background checks and training in child-abuse prevention and child protection. The diocese has assembled field review teams to independently verify the numbers over the next six months. Release of the numbers comes three weeks after an independent audit done for the state attorney general found significant lapses in the Roman Catholic diocese's compliance with its child-protection policies three years after implementing them. Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte, when publicly releasing the audit report March 30, particularly faulted the diocese for failing to do criminal background checks on all clergy, volunteers and staff and not ensuring those people underwent training. "That represented where we were 10 months ago," said the Rev. Edward J. Arsenault, delegate for ministerial conduct. "We're in a completely different place now than where we were then." Arsenault said the audit was based on field visits to a handful of parishes, schools and camps in June 2005. Figures the diocese released yesterday are current as of April 5, he said. Ayotte gave the diocese 30 days to present a plan for addressing inadequacies cited in the KPMG Inc. audit. Arsenault said he intends to respond to the attorney general's request by the April 26 deadline. Senior Assistant Attorney General N. William Delker said his office had not yet fully reviewed the information the diocese released yesterday. He said his office will withhold public comment until it receives the diocese's full response. "Our intention . . . is to evaluate it carefully and then verify the numbers they provided and to take a close look at it when we get the full package of information," Delker said. Ayotte also had criticized diocesan leadership — starting with the bishop — asserting it had not enforced compliance of its policies at the parish, school and camp level and had failed to independently verify information self-reported by these local institutions. Arsenault said figures released yesterday still must be independently verified by diocesan staff. Mary Ellen D'Intino, a full-time compliance coordinator recently hired by the diocese, has assembled a review team that will begin field visits to all parishes, schools and camps to ensure they are in compliance with diocesan child-protection policies and to verify that all personnel have undergone required background checks and training, Arsenault said. Field visits to all schools will be done this month and next, he said. Parish visits will be done by the end of October. "I have a high degree of confidence that my colleagues in ministry in parishes and schools want this to work well, too. I'm not saying every place is where they need to be. But once we've been there, we'll know ourselves," Arsenault said. The KPMG audit noted the diocese trained about 9,000 volunteers, but couldn't determine how many still needed to be trained because the diocese didn't know the total number of volunteers and staff working for it. Arsenault said figures released yesterday are accurate and up-to-date and will be updated routinely in a centralized database. Parish volunteers who work regularly with children — such as youth ministers and religious education teachers — have the lowest compliance rates: 73 percent had criminal background checks done; 81 percent underwent training. Arsenault said field review teams headed by D'Intino will determine whether background screenings were done and the results misplaced or whether volunteers refused to submit to them. Should the latter be the case, Arsenault said, the diocese would have to decide whether to allow these volunteers to continue in youth ministry. "We're going to look at that," he added. According to the newly-released numbers: all clergy, employees who work regularly with children and volunteers had their names screened against the on-line public sexual offender registry. In addition, all 189 priests and 48 deacons had their criminal history record information checked by the state police and were trained in child protection policies.
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