Catholic churches require volunteers’ fingerprints

The Catholic Church has been rocked nationally and internationally by sex and child abuse scandals. And the policy was handed down to “further protect children” in local parishes, according to Rachel Wilkinson, of Rogich Communications, the public relations firm that represents the diocese.

“The newer policy was not the result of a singular event,” Wilkinson said, adding that she did not know of any Las Vegas cases of church volunteers abusing children.

Bishop Joseph Pepe, head of the local diocese and author of the policy, was traveling to Germany last week and could not be reached for comment.

In 2002, Wilkinson noted, in the wake of around 11,000 allegations nationwide of priests sexually abusing children, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the Charter for the Protection of Young People and the Diocese of Las Vegas then issued a policy requiring employees and volunteers who worked directly with children to be fingerprinted.

Wilkinson said most of the more than 6,000 local volunteers have “no problem with the enhanced policy.” But some do.

“I think this is a great overreach to problems within the Catholic Church, to the molestation of children by priests,” said Tom Shively, a longtime parishioner at St. Joseph Husband of Mary Catholic Church at 7260 W. Sahara Ave. “I think it’s ludicrous. What it does is upset people who’ve been performing services honorably for the church for years and will drive them away.

“It’s just creating ill will,” Shively said. “The next thing you know they’ll be asking everyone for their DNA. It’s crazy. I hope they are fingerprinting all the clergy.”

Wilkinson said all clergy are fingerprinted and their fingerprints, like those of the volunteers, are submitted to both Nevada law enforcement and the FBI.

In a letter sent last week by the Rev. Marc Howes to volunteers at his St. Joseph parish, he wrote that “the Bishop has placed some additional requirements on those who volunteer” and noted they must attend at least one mandatory meeting in August or September.

“At the mandatory meeting, you will be asked to sign up for an appointment to meet with our fingerprinting expert here at the parish,” he said. “We are asking that you set an appointment so that you will not have to wait in line for two or three hours. … If you refuse to be fingerprinted or decide not to attend the mandatory meetings, you will not be able to minister at St. Joseph Husband of Mary until the requirements are met.”

Howes did not return phone calls from the Review-Journal.

Shively said parishioners are upset that the new security measures weren’t announced to the entire parish.

“Only the volunteers got the letters,” he said. “I only found out because they were upset. But this is upsetting to every­one. What does this say about our church?”

Wilkinson said the reason only volunteers learned about enhanced security measures is because “they’re the only ones affected.”

One church volunteer who spoke to the Review-Journal on the condition on anonymity — “I still want to go to church” — was disconsolate about being fingerprinted.

“I’m a reader to the parish, not a criminal,” he said.

While Shively speculated that Bishop Pepe may have been ordered by the Vatican to set the new policy, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, the director of media relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that wasn’t the case.

Each diocese can carry out the child protection program largely as it deems appropriate, Walsh said.

“It’s better to go overboard than not go far enough,” she said.

The Catholic Church is trying to get a handle on pedophilia, she said, and what the church has learned is that just because someone appears “nice,” that doesn’t mean he is.

“People who abuse children are not monsters you recognize at first sight,” Walsh said.

In 2008 a Southern Nevada man filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas, saying he was sexually molested by a priest more than 20 years earlier.

The man, named only as John Doe 119, alleged that the Rev. John Patrick Feeney, then pastor at St. Francis de Sales church near Washington Avenue and Decatur Boulevard, fondled him after they attended a University of Nevada, Las Vegas football game in 1984.

Clark County District Court records show the diocese settled the case with John Doe 119 in October 2009. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Feeney, 83, was convicted in 2004 of molesting two brothers in 1978 in Wisconsin and is now serving a 15-year prison term.

In 2004, the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops, in announcing results of a 2002 study commissioned from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, found that of the 521 priests who served in the state of Nevada from 1950 to 1995, eight were accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

According to the study, there were 13 victims and the Dioceses of Reno and Las Vegas shared a cost of approximately $2.5 million in settlements, therapy and legal fees.

The John Jay study found that of the approximately 11,000 allegations of sexual abuse against almost 4,500 priests nationwide, 6,700 were investigated and substantiated.

A volunteer at St. Joseph who reads Gospel passages to parishioners said he couldn’t be more upset by what the church is doing. He said he didn’t want to disclose his name for fear it would hurt his standing in the parish.

“They’re making me feel like a criminal,” he said. “My wife is terribly upset.”

Sister Mary Ann Walsh understands that there are Catholics who would be upset by increased safety measures.

“This is a very sad thing,” she said. “But it is the world we live in.”

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at
pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.