ST. KATHARINE DREXEL CATHOLIC PARISH
The VIRTUS programs were created in 1998 by The National Catholic Risk Retention Group, Inc. (National Catholic). Since its inception, the VIRTUS programs continue to evolve to go above and beyond the needs of organizations to safeguard ministries and people. Over 6 million adults have been trained through their Protecting God's Children Program, and millions of youth have been trained in the Empowering God's Children Program. They work with dioceses, parishes and religious communities, along with other organizations and schools. Their programs are designed to help prevent wrongdoing and promote "rightdoing" within organizations. The VIRTUS programs empower organizations and people to take action as safe adults and improve the lives of everyone with whom they interact within the Church and other organizations.
Emmaus Retreat
Mandatory Registration, Background Checks & Training
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Emmaus
VIRTUS
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Anyone who wants to serve as voluntary or to work at any Catholic Parish level in the US, especially those who will have close contact with children/teenagers and/or those identified as "vulnerable adults", must be registered, trained and current with Virtus.
Find below the steps to be allowed to serve in our Parish, including on Retreats and all other Ministries:
- Connect to Virtus website https://www.virtusonline.org/
Registration & Training:
- Follow the steps mentioned in this PDF document.
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Virtus Registration and Training
Fingerprinting & Background Check:
- Follow the steps mentioned in this PDF document.
Virtus Fingerprinting & Background Check
After completing the steps above, in few weeks you should receive an e-mail message from Virtus confirming everything is ok. After 2 or 3 weeks, if no message is received, contact St Katharine Drexel's staff for Virtus: Mrs. Rima Petersen (rimap@skdrexel.org) and check if they have received the results.
Make sure to keep checking your e-mail inbox to see if you have already received confirmation as well. Again, as it might take few weeks for confirmations to arrive, do not wait to complete your registration / training / fingerprinting / background check too close to the Retreat as you might not receive confirmation before the Retreat.
Finally, the last part of Virtus is to stay current with their monthly bulletins. They are published in Virtus Website - you must read all, and answer the question(s) at the end of each bulleting. They come to make sure we all stay aware of everything we need to do and how to bahave/act when confronted with situations that can harm children/teens and vulnerable adults.
If you let unread bulletins / questions accumulate, your status might be turned into inactive and then, to reactivate it again, you will have to go through the training/fingerprinting/background check again.
What you want to see is this (those first five squares in green):
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- Select LOCATION as "Miami, FL - Archdiocese"