How to Drive Away Church Volunteers

I play in a volunteer church band that leads music at Masses about once a month - though with the pandemic we have not played in more than a year. I also play Santa for our parish Christmas celebration

This summer, the parish notified volunteers that if they are involved with any ministries that involve young people the volunteers must undergo some CASE (Creating A Safe Environment) training and sign a code of conduct, and undergo a background check. 

By way of background, our diocese was sued by a number of people for alleged sexual abuse committed decades ago. The diocese really cleaned out the misbehaving priests 20 years ago, and there have not been any offenses committed in years, but the state dropped the statute of limitations for a spell allowing massive numbers of lawsuits against dioceses across the state. Our diocese ultimately filed for bankruptcy protection. 

So the diocese is paranoid about future lawsuits. Hence even volunteers have to be cleared. I understand that caution. I did a form of the CASE training a few years back, so I contacted the person in charge of it at our parish to find out what I needed to do. This was her response:

"Attached is the information for doing the online training along with the code of conduct and background check form. 

 

For the background check: You can complete the form and our office submits the information, or it can be done electronically where I send the company your email and they contact you or if you have an enhanced license or passport, you can make a copy, complete the form but do not need to give your SS#.

Once you complete the training, you will need to give me the completion certificate, code of conduct form and let me know how you would like to do the background check."

Wait? Background check with photocopies of documents, or even my Social Security number???

I responded: "Hmmm. What a pain! Is this required to play with Rock of Faith?"  

She responded to that with: 

"Per the Diocese:

All volunteers need to be CASE trained. They have provided an exemption for Money Counters and Committee members IF there are no youths/children on the committee and the committee meets when no youths/children around. Additionally, women and men’s groups that meet when no youths/children around and no youths/children in the group. Additionally, the exemption goes away if a vulnerable adult is a part of the committee."

And I responded: 

"I know, it's not your fault. It's kind of a sad state! 

Heck, I had to do this sort of thing to work full-time as a teacher, but this is just to volunteer, and in my case, just to play at Mass about once a month. I understand the diocese is paranoid about potential future lawsuits, but it's almost like they are making it harder for people to volunteer. In my case, I've got 25 years of teaching, about 15 years as a professional Santa, and years in human services behind me. 

So I take it no one can volunteer to play Santa at the parish unless they do this?" 

She replied: "Yes, whoever is Santa will need the training as well."

At that point, I wrote a lengthier reflection:

"Just by way of explanation - 

This is more than just me being cranky - though, of course, I do tend to be cranky!

If it was just a matter of the training - which I have done before - I would not have had a problem. Even the volunteer statement would be fine.

It's the background check, requiring photocopies of documents like my passport, or my Social Security number, that crossed the line.  That seems intrusive.

I'm a very private person by nature. I don't like people sticking their noses in my business if I don't see it as absolutely necessary.  Moreover, I like to keep things simple. For a paying job I need and really want, okay, if I have to jump through hoops I will. But to volunteer? 

And I've just spent weeks correcting an instance of fraud in which someone used my name and Social Security number to open a checking account and apply for unemployment insurance. I got it stopped before any harm was done, but I'm leery of letting out my information. I don't shop online and try to avoid doing business online, so they must have gotten my number from one of the places where I had to supply it. One of those possible places was the diocese, where I applied for my pension last year! Was it from there they got it? Probably not, but I don't know. So I'm cautious.

Plus, I see potential problems with this policy. Some folks like me don't like to make things complicated, so they might decide volunteering is not worth the hassles. And I just got a message from a friend whose grandchild, a teen who sang well and even had some vocal training, was stopped from joining a choir at church because it would have forced all the members of the choir to get the CASE training. I hate to see young people, the future of the church, discouraged.  Will there be other instances like this?

Further, having been around for a while, I've seen too often instances when authorities mandated something, or some fad policy was put into effect, and everyone tried to comply, then the mandate or fad gradually faded away. (Don't get me started on educational fads!) Who knows what a new pastor or a new bishop might say in a few months. And I suspect that not all places will interpret in exactly the same way how to apply the mandate - as happened with the inoculated people/mask policy just recently."

She responded to that with:

"You are not the first person who has expressed their opinion regarding this new policy.  I don't know about other parishes but since I am the CASE coordinator and responsible for our volunteers and records on each volunteer, I will be adhering to the mandated policy at the present time.  All parishes do have to complete an annual CASE report for the diocese."  

The thing is, the training is okay - it does identify some actions that even though innocent might be viewed as inappropriate. But the background check and the documents, for volunteers seems to me to go too far. Moreover, individuals who prey on young people are often deceptive and clever, and have not been caught previously, so all this is not likely to achieve much more than providing legal cover for the diocese. 

In addition, the parish has been excessive in its safety measures during the pandemic. Our Franciscan Fraternity used to meet at the parish, but all the facilities there got locked down last March, and have not reopened for meetings. We shifted our Fraternity to a nearby private chapel, and have been able to meet since last September. If we were still based at the parish, we STILL would not have met. And when the diocese relaxed the mask rules in early June, allowing people who had been vaccinated to attend Mass without masks, many parishes did allow this, but my parish kept the mask requirement in place for several more weeks. I ended up going to church elsewhere. It seems as if my parish is too rigid to the point of being irrational.

I say "my parish," but to be honest, my wife has been agitating to move to a different one for a while, but I held out because of the band. With the possibility I will not be able to play at the parish with the band again - or at least not for the near future - that tie is gone. We've decided to explore other parishes for a while and may ultimately register elsewhere.

(I had written about parish concerns previously.)

Pax et bonum