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Background Checks
Background Checks are required for all clergy, employees, volunteers and contract employees within the Diocese of Bridgeport.
Volunteer and Contract Employee Forms
The following forms are to be used for people who volunteer for Diocese of Bridgeport and those who are contracted to perform work for the Diocese of Bridgeport. Please contact the Human Resources Department with any questions by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Click here for information on Choicepoint.
Click here for information on the Office of Safe Environments.
A Powerful Deterrent, a Source of Vital Information: Why Do We Conduct Background Checks?
By Beth Longware Duff
Fairfield County Catholic, February 2004
A major component of the Safe Environments Initiative of the Diocese of Bridgeport is the criminal background check, which is now required of everyone who works for the Catholic Church in Fairfield County: priests, deacons, religious women and men, lay employees, volunteers, and contractors. Over the course of the next year, these 20,000 people will undergo a background check, which is conducted by an outside professional firm.
Erin Neil, M.S.W., director of the diocesan Office of Safe Environments, and Louise Stewart-Spagnuolo, (then) diocesan director of Resource Development, have been traveling around the diocese, rolling out the Safe Environments Initiative through informational in-service presentations.
In February 2004, Stewart-Spagnuolo sat down with Fairfield County Catholic to answer some of the most frequently-asked questions about the required background check.
Fairfield County Catholic: Background checks of employees have become commonplace in the business world today. Why should the Catholic Church use them?
Louise Stewart-Spagnuolo: While we are a Church, we are also an employer. Background checks are being required by more and more employers and by any organization that deals with children - scouts, youth soccer leagues, Little League Baseball, for example.
FCC: What kind of reaction are you getting from people on the subject?
Stewart-Spagnuolo: Very positive. People seem to support it and understand that we need to do this, but there are a few areas of concern, such as where the information goes and who has access to it.
FCC: Where does the information go, and who has access to it?
Stewart-Spagnuolo: All information comes back to one source - my computer - which is double password protected, one for the computer and one for the report. And individual institutions will only be told to hire or not to hire an individual, not the details of why.
FCC: What other concerns have you heard?
Stewart-Spagnuolo: People expressed concerns about mistakes they may have made in the past, especially when they were young. While each report will be reviewed on its own merits, we let people know that, generally speaking, their youthful indiscretions will not be held against them. The only things we have zero tolerance for are crimes against children, and sex crimes.
FCC: How far back does the background check go, and what does it cover?
Stewart-Spagnuolo: Checks are done on applicants who are aged 18 and older. It does not include youth who are doing community service for Confirmation. We get a written report that goes back ten years, but the search goes back as far as there are records. The criteria for what gets checked is pre-established in our policy, and it's on the authorization form. We conduct a criminal background check on everyone, and an additional credit check on those people who work with finances. That's all we can check. To do anything else would be going against our policy and violating privacy laws. We do not check medical backgrounds.
FCC: Who actually conducts the search?
Stewart-Spagnuolo: The company that we use for employees is MYB, Inc., and we use ChoicePoint for volunteers. Both were identified by our insurer, Catholic Mutual. People have asked us if either company sells their lists, and we have confirmed with them that they do not.
FCC: Has the process turned up any hits?
Stewart-Spagnuolo: Yes. And this is why background checks are so important, and can be a powerful deterrent. Predators share information on how to access organizations, so the idea is to create a reality where they'll say "dont even go near the Catholic Church, they have a policy in place that will find you". And that will deter any predators from coming into our safe environment.