On Saturday, I mentioned the Virtus training program for parish ministry workers. Another blogger has interpreted my comments to be a complaint about the program “Protecting God’s Children.” That isn’t true. I haven’t gone through the program, although I have heard that it is good.
My concern was about something I learned in connection with the announcement of that training program and it is that Massachusetts law makes anyone who volunteers for any ministry in a parish a mandated reporter, i.e. they have a legal liability regarding reporting suspected abuse. And a policy of the Archdiocese of Boston requires every parish volunteer, including lectors, Eucharistic ministers, and so on, to take the program or be dismissed from ministry.
I just wanted to be clear.
