October 2, 2005
What would Jesus sign?

As all of our parish volunteer know by now, we have asked them to sign a “Code of Conduct” that is designed to remind all of us of how we are to create an environment that is safe for our children.

Years ago, no one would have thought to do this, but as we learned so painfully in the last couple of years, over the past decades, some children were being abused in the church, the most notable cases were the ones where priests were the abusers and bishops turned a blind eye to the allegations of abuse.

So here we are, asking people to consciously look out for our children, to do the positive actions that foster a healthy and holy community, and to agree to avoid those actions that could harm others.

As I read through this code once again, I realize that so much of what we’re asking people to do is to do what Jesus would do. For example, the code asks people to “Treat everyone with respect, loyalty, patience, integrity, courtesy, dignity, and consideration.” Yes...that’s what Jesus would do. So in signing this code, each volunteer is really witnessing that he/she is engaged in treating people as Jesus does.

If you’d like to see the whole statement, you can read it here. Besides reading it, I ask you to consider how you are living this code and if you ever see a parish volunteer or staff member not living up to this code, please bring that to the attention of that person -- and feel free to talk with me about it too.

In the past, too much harm was done because people DIDN’T talk about what troubled them or if they did, their concerns were ignored. That was then. Now has to be different.

Once again I’d like to say that if there is any member of our community who has experienced hurt or harm because of a priest, religious or lay member of our community and if you’d like to seek healing or help with this, please know that I care and our staff cares and you can approach any of us that you trust and we’ll offer whatever help we can give.

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