Archdiocese rolls out new Safe Environment program

The Archdiocese of New Orleans recently adopted a new adult and children protection program and database. Called VIRTUS Programs, the safe environment platform began rolling out July 1 with the training of site administrators within the archdiocese.

“It’s for children, adults, volunteers and archdiocesan employees,” said Mount Carmel Sister Mary Ellen Wheelahan, Safe Environment coordinator for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. “We are always looking to improve the ways we protect our children and vulnerable adults, and, as we strive to better protect, we want to be more efficient.”

Archdioceses and dioceses throughout the United States have adopted a child-abuse prevention program since the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” in 2002. The charter was updated in 2018.


Program in wide use
VIRTUS, which is being used by more than 100 rchdioceses/dioceses/eparchies nationwide, offers more than 20 years’ experience in children-abuse-prevention training. It hosts training modules in many languages that can be customized for children in grades K-12, and for adults who work with minors or vulnerable adults.

Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese are just a few of the additional languages available, said Pat Neal, director of the VIRTUS Programs based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. VIRTUS has a 24-hour online platform that provides resources, tracking and compliance.


“VIRTUS identifies best practices designed to help prevent wrongdoing and promote ‘rightdoing’ within any organization,” Neal said.

Sister Mary Ellen said the switch to the new Safe Environment platform has been relatively seamless. Information from the former system has been migrated to VIRTUS, and those up to date with their training were already sent a welcome letter with instructions on how to connect to VIRTUS.

Local updates to abuse policy
At the same time the switch was made, archdiocesan updates were issued on various safe environment documents – the “Policy Concerning Abuse or Neglect of Minors or Vulnerable Adults,” the “Principles of Ethics and Integrity in Ministry” and the “Technology Policy For Pastoral Work with Young People.”


“Most people will not see major changes in their safe-environment training to work with children,” she said. “It’s just a different company.”

Initial or renewal training can be done online, although Sister Mary Ellen is available for in-person training at parishes and schools. A bonus feature of VIRTUS is that notifications will be sent to participants when their training certification is about to expire.

Sister Mary Ellen said she likes the interactive aspect of the new training.

“What I like about the training is that a question is given,” she said. “Then you answer the question, watch a several-minutes-long video, and the question is asked again. You can change your answer or leave your answer the same. The trainee then pushes the button to see if the answer is correct or not correct.”

“If it’s incorrect, they will tell you why, and it asks the person to read more,” said Martha Mundine, deputy superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. “It’s built on comprehension.”

Individual site compliance
In the archdiocese, Sister Mary Ellen and Chalana Alexander Landry, SHRM-SCP, Ph.D., director of human resources, are the VIRTUS contacts. Sister Mary Ellen said each school, parish or program will have its own site administrator who is responsible that all volunteers and employees of their site are registered with VIRTUS and in compliance, which requires that both background checks and safe-environment training are completed every three years.

While there are some who say that when children are trained to identify sexual abuse, false reports will happen, Sister Mary Ellen said that is possible.

“But, we get reports where adults do come forward and children do come forward, and our adults know now that they have to make a report,” she said. “We have a legal and ethical and moral responsibility.”

Sister Mary Ellen knows the program works. She cited two examples of how high school camp volunteers who had safe environment training reported situations that didn’t seem right.

“Just this summer, a recent high school graduate made a report to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS),” she said. “He had cause to believe that a child was abused. He was congratulated and said he learned (to identify signs) from safe-environment training in school. … The situation was real. I told them to tell him he is my hero.”

“Culturally, other organizations now look to the Catholic Church as a (national) standard of what to do as a best practice of not only the prevention of child sexual abuse but the hope of healing as well,” Neal said. “We are not only preventing child abuse, but we also have all the healing aspects that go along with this training.”

Sister Mary Ellen says adults who were abused as children often tell her how appreciative they are of the safe environment program.

“They say, ‘If we had had this when we were younger, we would have known we could have prevented it or could have gone to somebody and reached out for help,’” she said. “There’s some healing in that process.”

VIRTUS is releasing a new version of its adult program that features a survivor, Neal said.

“We say where are we today in the healing aspect of what’s been created,” Neal said. “It’s not really about the charter. It’s what we’re doing.”

“We’ve gone beyond the charter,” Sister Mary Ellen said. “We understand our responsibility to make the church safe.”

To find out more about VIRTUS, visit www.nolacatholic.org/virtus-training. A short video about VIRTUS can be accessed at www.virtus.org.

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