All clergy, paid parish/school personnel and volunteers who work regularly in a supervisory role with children or youth must be fingerprinted.
Please Note: The information below is from the Archdiocese of LA Administrative Handbook: Fingerprinting Policies and Guidelines.
Why fingerprint?
The archdiocese uses fingerprinting as its core background check. All persons, whether paid or volunteer, who have regular contact with minors or vulnerable adults are fingerprinted and agree that the archdiocese or other specified person will receive any subsequent arrest notifications. The details of the fingerprinting requirement are listed in the following sections and vary depending on one’s role. Accordingly, the policies must be reviewed and implemented with care and attention to the current role of the individual being fingerprinted.
Parish Volunteers
As a general matter, all adult parish volunteers who have regular contact with minors must be fingerprinted under the California Penal Code. The fingerprints are submitted to the California Department of Justice. Fingerprint reports and any subsequent arrest notifications are overseen by the archdiocesan Fingerprinting Office as the confidential reporter of criminal offender record information (CORI reporter), or by the location if the location is continuing to rely on its CORI reporter rather than the archdiocesan Fingerprinting Office.
Directors of Religious Education, Catechists, Confirmation Coordinators, Youth Ministers, and Music Ministers
The archdiocesan policy is to fingerprint adults, not minors. Under state law, people who are under 18 years old should not be fingerprinted. Therefore, any minors who volunteer to work with other minors need to be supervised at all times by an adult who has been fingerprinted and has completed VIRTUS® training; the minor volunteer should not work alone with other minors. If an adult volunteer has a valid reason not to be fingerprinted, the volunteer needs to consult the pastor/administrator at the parish or the archdiocesan Fingerprinting Office and, if the pastor/administrator agrees, the volunteer may submit the Confirmation of Prior Conduct.
Whether paid or volunteer, directors of religious education, catechists, confirmation coordinators, youth ministers, and music ministers working with youth choirs or parish youth music groups will be fingerprinted under the California Penal Code and the fingerprints are submitted to the California Department of Justice. However, if the person has been fingerprinted under the Penal Code, Education Code, or Health and Safety Code for another assignment in the archdiocese and the reports from the prior fingerprinting are overseen by the archdiocesan Fingerprinting Office, then the person need not be fingerprinted again. Fingerprint reports and any subsequent arrest notifications are overseen by the archdiocesan Fingerprinting Office as the confidential reporter of criminal offender record information (CORI reporter), or by the location if the location is continuing to rely on its CORI reporter rather than the archdiocesan Fingerprinting Office.
Scheduling an Appointment
For updated monthly schedules offering dates, hours, and addresses of fingerprinting locations in all five pastoral regions in our archdiocese, click here. Phone numbers are included with each site to schedule an appointment for fingerprinting.
Appointments are still necessary to facilitate a smooth operation in the field. We appreciate that every parish and ministry wants to cooperate fully with Archdiocesan policies in providing a safe environment and we are aware that appointments can be difficult to find because the schedules fill up rapidly.
Please emphasize the importance of keeping an appointment or calling in advance to cancel so that others can be given the opportunity to be fingerprinted. We thank you in advance for your patience as we move towards our common goal: protecting the faithful of the future.