VIRTUS: Safeguard the Children & Fingerprinting

VIRTUS® Protecting God’s Children Adult Awareness Session is a three-hour training that helps clergy, staff, volunteers and parents to understand the facts and myths about child sexual abuse; how perpetrators operate; and how caring adults can take five important steps to keep children safe. The parent session also stresses monitoring of computers, cell phones and other technology that perpetrators use to gain access to children and young people.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles mandates all staff, whether paid or volunteer, and all volunteers who work in any capacity with or around children, the elderly, or people with special needs are required to complete the initial three-hour VIRTUS® Protecting God’s Children for Adults program. This education component helps prevent child sexual abuse by first making every adult employee and volunteer aware of the issues surrounding child sexual abuse. This includes awareness of the many ways sexual abuse harms its victims, their families, the parish, and the community. The awareness session also helps adults learn to recognize the warning signs of abuse and shows them the appropriate way to respond to suspicious behavior. Finally, the awareness session empowers each person with five steps to help prevent child sexual abuse.

More than 150,000 priests, deacons, parish and school staff members and volunteers have already participated in these sessions throughout the five Pastoral Regions of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Our goal is to provide this training to all adults who work with children so we can work together as a more effective community to prevent child sexual abuse.

• VIRTUS Online – Upcoming Sessions:  Click to view the Virtus page for an updated listing of upcoming sessions in your area.  On the Virtus page, click on “Select your Organization” to view a drop-down menu.  Scroll down to “Los Angeles” to view sessions listed by our five Pastoral Regions.  Clicking “Select” will show you a list of upcoming sessions by location and date.
• VIRTUS Online – Begin Registration Process: Click to view the Virtus page to begin your online registration process with Virtus.  On the Virtus page, click on “Select your Organization” to view a drop-down menu.  Scroll down to “Los Angeles” to view sessions listed by our five Pastoral Regions.  Clicking “Select” begins your registration process.
• VIRTUS Registration Instructions: A step-by-Step handout explaining how to pre-register for a session or how to register their attendance of a session after attending.  Adobe Acrobat Reader required.

Keeping the Promise Alive provides ongoing awareness for the prevention of child sexual abuse. The material covered in Keeping the Promise Alive is designed to identify and reinforce the lessons of the original Protecting God’s Children® for Adults program by clarifying some of the more challenging aspects of the sessions and strengthening the participants’ ability to recognize risky behavior in their environments and take action to intervene in potentially threatening situations. This program answers the questions, “What have been some results of the Protecting God’s Children program, and what else can we do to keep all children safe?”
For more information about both programs above, please go online to: www.virtus.org/virtus. Have question on recertification? Please click here to download an info sheet.