Child Protection
The Church and the 3 Maryland-serving dioceses are committed to keeping children safe. The Conference supports legislation that protects children in their homes, at their schools and in their communities.
Baltimore archdiocese reaches 100,000 screenings in child protection efforts
By Maria Wiering
The Catholic Review
After his family moved to Maryland last fall, Jon Ellwanger aspired to coach basketball at his children’s new school, Resurrection-St. Paul in Ellicott City, as he had at his previous parish and school in New York.
In order to assume the role, he, like every other staff member or volunteer who works with children in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, underwent a background screening.
His background check was the 100,000th screening conducted by the archdiocese since the process was implemented in 2003, according to Alison D’Alessandro, director of the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection.
LexisNexis, the company who provides the screenings, confirmed in January the archdiocese had hit the benchmark. The archdiocese has screened and trained more people for child protection efforts than any other organization in Maryland, D’Alessandro said.
The 100,000 milepost demonstrates the archdiocese’s commitment to creating “a culture in which the abuse of children is not tolerated, and in which we can all be confident young people are safe,” said Archbishop William E. Lori. Read more here.
