Archdiocese of Agaña Safe Environment Program
By Tricia Tenorio
19 November 2020

Safe Environment is creating a space where one can feel safe from harm, be it physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  In 2002, hundreds of sexual allegations and reports of clergy sexual abuse of children brought about a crisis within the Church in the United States.  In response, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop (USCCB) signed a Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It is a guide to promote healing and reconciliation with victims/survivors of sexual abuse of minors, to guarantee an effective response to allegations of sexual abuse of minors, and to ensure the accountability of our procedures. Since then there have been three revisions, 2005, 2011, and most recently in 2018.
What happened in the United States made its way into the Archdiocese of Agana in 2016. Many reports that were kept silent were brought to light in 2016.  The Church became divided. A task force for the protection of children was formed and outreach to the schools and parishes were made to provide education on Child Abuse and Mandated Reporter. The hope was to restore trust and refocus to bring about healing, safety, support and respect.
In 2017, the Office of Safe Environment was created to develop and implement policies. A safe environment program was developed to ensure that policies were in place to create a safe environment primarily for children and young people entrusted to the Church’s care. The mission of the Archdiocese of Agaña’s Safe Environment Program is to protect children in all environments so that parents will be confident in their children’s participation in their parishes, schools, and in interactions with others in the Catholic Church. We believe it is our responsibility to strive to provide a loving, secure environment for the children by establishing clearly defined safeguards, procedures, and policies for their care and protection. This approach is based on taking decisive, consistent action in an open, transparent manner.
The Safe Environment Program is tasked with ensuring that all clergy, employees, and volunteers working with children undergo annual training and background check clearances. The annual training uses the VIRTUS platform. Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes, Metropolitan Archbishop of Agaña adopted the USCCB Charter in February 2017 and the program & policies were promulgated and implemented in October 2017.  Thus, the first annual VIRTUS training launched was Protecting God’s Children Module 3.0 in November 2017.  I was privileged to have the opportunity to attend my first ever Child and Youth Protection Catholic Leadership Conference in 2018 in New Orleans.  Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans in his opening remarks emphasized what our roles were as Victim Assistance Coordinators or Safe Environment Coordinators.  This conference emphasized that the Church is charged to make right the wrong, focus on actions to reduce risk of abuse and further damage to our children and our Church,  while modeling Christ, and creating for children and young people a kind of loving relationship that Christ teaches in His gospel message. The Safe Environment Program embodies a protective message to children noting their unique and special creation and their dignity as a person.  It is more than a program with requirements to checked off on a list.  It is healing those who have been harmed, preventing abuse, and modeling right relationships as a part of who and how we are with children.
Children and young people make up the Body of Christ. Their dignity as a person is just as important as of adults and should be protected, guided, and cared for. To make this happen, we need to surround them with caring and trusted adults. These caring and trusted adults will be held accountable for their actions when it compromises the safety of children and young people. As a Church and members of community, we need to know our role and when we see or hear about child abuse, we do our part to say something, to report it to civil authorities and to the Office of Safe Environment. The Safe Environment Program paves the way to restore trust in our Church and a prevention for sexual abuse. Bad things can happen. With the Safe Environment Program in place, we become a more vigilant and aware community, and by learning from our past we actively work to safeguard all those entrusted to our care.