Several months before the March, you need to contact the parish or school with which you are associated and ask them to give you copies of your child protection documents.  You also need to ask them to double check to ensure that you have been entered properly into the Diocesan Child Protection database.  If a mistake is made regarding this data entry, you may be excluded from the participation in the trip for this year.  

If you have NOT already gone through the process of becoming certified to work or volunteer for the Catholic Church, you need to follow these steps:

1. You have to go through a background check with your Diocese.  That means turning in to your parish or school an "application form" to be a volunteer within the diocese.  For the Diocese of Baton Rouge, it can be found on the following website: 

http://www.diobr.org/documents/eapps_appl.pdf

 

2. You have to take a Diocesan class on Child Protection.  In the Diocese of Baton Rouge, you have to watch a one hour video on child protection and answer 5 easy questions afterwards.  This quiz may be taken multiple times until you answer all the questions correctly.  After the quiz, print the certificate, make a copy for yourself, and turn in the certificate to your parish or school.  Just create a log in and follow the instructions at 

http://safeandsacred-diobr.org/login/index.php

 

3. You have to read through and sign the signature pages at the back of the Diocesan Code of Ethics.  For the Diocese of Baton Rouge, it can be found at at 

http://www.diobrocyp.org/PDFS/Code%20of%20Ethics_52010%5B1%5D.pdf

 

Send all these items together to the Church or School with which you are associated.  Follow up to ensure that they were processed correctly and ask for copies of these documents for your own files.  I know this process is arduous, but it is an absolute prerequisite for all adults attending the trip.  

Thanks in advance for being extremely conscientious about these matters.  

Peter Fletcher, 

Pilgrimage Director