Kristin Leandro
The headlines have been absent from the front pages for a while, but the sexual abuse of children by priests and religious remains an active and ongoing concern for the Catholic Church, including the church in Hawaii. The effort is two-fold: reaching out to past victims and preventing new ones.
These are not new activities for the Honolulu diocese — they have been in place for more than a decade. However, this year is shaping up to be an extra busy one.
Heading up the task is the new diocesan director of safe environment Kristin Leandro, appointed last September.
Leandro has spent the last few months contacting Hawaii’s parishes, reintroducing them to the list of requirements mandated by the U.S. Bishops’ 2002 “Charter for the Protection of children and Young People.” That document was the bishops’ strong response to the clergy sex abuse scandal that erupted more than a dozen years ago.
She is also getting ready for an onsite audit of the diocese’s safe environment program that will be conducted in October by Stonebridge Business Partners of Rochester, N.Y. The audit, which takes place every three years, will include auditor visits to several parishes to check their compliance with the bishops’ charter.
Reaching out to past victims is a relatively small part of Leandro’s job mainly because their numbers have shrunk significantly since the scandal broke. Many victims have already come forward, mostly through the filing of lawsuits against the diocese, prompted by recent laws temporarily eliminating the statute of limitations for sex abuse cases.
Nevertheless, Leandro has placed newspaper advertising offering “support and services for adult survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy, religious or church workers of the Diocese of Honolulu.”
The ads give the name and contact information of a victim assistance coordinator assigned by the diocese to meet with victims, provide appropriate counseling and other services, and help victims inform and arrange meetings with diocesan officials.
The victim assistance coordinator is Joni Fujii, a counselor and therapist with Catholic Charities Hawaii. She is also available to respond to current abuse cases.
No victim of abuse, past or present, has contacted the diocese’s victim assistance coordinator since Leandro started her job seven months ago.
Nearly all of Leandro’s work focuses on prevention, through the screening and training of adults and the education of children.
Helping her coordinate this work on the parish-level are pastor-appointed safe environment liaisons. According to diocesan policies, each parish is required to have a liaison starting this year.
As of April, about a third of Hawaii’s 66 pastors have named safe environment liaisons since Bishop Larry Silva instructed them to do so earlier this year. Each parish should have a designated liaison by this summer, Leandro said.
The parish liaison helps the pastor ensure that all adults (18 and older) who work with children and youth (under age 18) in the parish, fulfill safe environment requirements. These include undergoing background screening and safe environment training on how to prevent, recognize and report child abuse.
The liaison also makes sure that children and youth in parish schools, religious education programs and youth ministry programs receive proper, age-appropriate, training. Parents have the option of not having their children participate.
The liaison keeps records of who undergoes screening and training and sends annual reports by May 1 to the diocesan Safe Environment Office.
Rescreening and retraining of adults, now required every five years, must be completed by Dec. 31 of each year.
New employees and independent contractors receive a background screening through the diocesan Human Resources Office. Catholic schools, both parish and private, have their own screening process, coordinated by the Hawaii Catholic Schools office, that includes fingerprinting.
Parish volunteers are screened through the Shield the Vulnerable website, an online resource for diocesan safe environment programs.
All employees and volunteers must complete the “Protect Children” training offered on the Shield the Vulnerable website within 30 days of starting work. It takes about 90 minutes to complete.
The fee per parish is $25 per background screening and $10 per adult training.
The education programs can be found on the diocesan website, catholichawaii.org/safe_environment. Leandro will also be giving safe environment presentations at the annual faith formation conferences sponsored later this year by the diocese.
