In an effort to guard the safety of Vulnerable Persons under the care of the Archdiocese, all Church Personnel, ages 18 and older, will be required to sumbit a completed Criminal Background Check Form as well as a complete set of fingerprints so as to facilitate a criminal background investigation.
Eligibility for employment, volunteer work, or ministry will be contingent and conditioned upon a satisfactory background investigation. This background investigation will be updated every five years. This policy applies even if an individual has been cleared through an FBI or FDLE check conducted by their employer or another entity.
Volunteers under the age of 18 are not allowed to have unsupervised access to children, youth or vulnerable adults. This includes youth ministers, coaches, mentors, scout leaders, babysitters, etc.
These individuals who may assist with children, youth and vulnerable adults must be supervised by a volunteer or employee who has been Virtus trained and has successfully completed a Level 2 Background Check. Because volunteers under the age of 18 are not allowed to have unsupervised access to children, youth or vulnerable adults, they are not screened for criminal history. VIRTUS training for volunteers under the age of 18 is optional but recommended under the VIRTUS program "Healthy Choices for Teens".
All those seeking employment or volunteer opportunities can complete Virtus training online which must be completed prior to employment/volunteer/vendor positions begin. Online training can be accessed 24/7. Both fingerprinting and the initial Virtus training session must be completed (and for fingerprinting the results must be received) prior to serving as an employee, vendor, or volunteer. New hires may take the online training during their first day as part of their orientation. Any other scenario requires the training to be completed prior to working or volunteering.
You can verify participants’ status through your location’s Virtus User Reports (accessible by your Local Coordinator) or by having the participant turn in their Training Report. Call the office to reach our Local Safe Environment Coordinator if you wish to check the status of one of your ministry members.
Once the initial training is complete, your account will be automatically activated. If you forget to complete the initial training within the first 60 days, you will need to re-register to complete the process.
Continuing training is in the form of online monthly bulletins. For more information, contact Jan Rayburn at jrayburn@theadom.org
To help ensure VIRTUS Online messages are delivered properly to your Inbox (not spam or junk folders) -- please add system@pub.virtus.org -- to your Address Book and/or Safe List. If you follow these directions (adding system@pub.virtus.org to your Address Book and/or Safe List), but reminders default to your spam folder -- or you do not receive your reminders at all -we recommend that you check directly with your email provider to see if they are blocking or otherwise affecting delivery of email communications from VIRTUS Online (system@pub.virtus.org) to your email account.