August 22, 2025
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I want to thank all of you who are meeting with me via Teams or in-person to help me better understand how the Office of Safe Environments can better help your ministry be compliant with the USCCB Charter. It truly is such a pleasure to be surrounded by such a talented and hard-working group of Christ-driven individuals like yourself! God has truly blessed this Archdiocese.
For those of you who did not have a chance to read the last newsletter, I have gifts to you! Starting Friday, August 29, VIRTUS will launch Background Check and Module Recertification feature for all our users. What does this mean?
BACKGROUND CHECK AUTOMATIONS
VIRTUS will have a Background Authorization Form integrated into the registration system! When a first-time registrant creates an account, they will be required to provide their date of birth, gender, race, and whether they have resided in the State of Michigan for the last seven years. They will also be prompted to sign and authorize a Background Check to be conducted by your parish/school. Upon completion of their registration, you will be able to pull all their information from VIRTUS to conduct an ICHAT. The best part? This authorization form is a one-and-done agreement due to the fact our VIRTUS users will be agreeing to an annual (or every two years for our volunteers) background check by signing this form. For users that already have a VIRTUS account, they will receive an email from VIRTUS on August 29 to also sign this form. I recognize this could cause some confusion for your users and have prepared a letter for you to send out to your staff and volunteers. Please read that letter here.
RECERTIFCATION AUTOMATION
Starting August 29, all VIRTUS users in your parish or school who need to be recertified will receive an automatic email from VIRTUS saying that they have been assigned the self-paced, “Protecting God’s Children 4.0 and Vulnerable Adults 2.0” module, and that it will be due within 14 days of assignment. Local Admins will also be notified when someone assigned to you has completed the module. VIRTUS account holders will be able to find the training on the Home page in the box labeled, “Training History”.
MASS INACTIVATION
VIRTUS will be conducting a mass deactivation on August 29 for anyone who hasn’t logged into their account since August 2020. We are conducting this mass deactivation because the recertification requirement is on a three-year basis and anyone who hasn’t logged in to their VIRTUS account in five years is well out of compliance. I would like to note that this deactivation does not permanently delete users, and it will be very easy to reactivate anyone at any time. Going forward, Safe Environments will conduct these batch deactivations annually for anyone who hasn’t logged in for at least 4 years.
ALL LOCAL VIRTUS ADMINS: MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR OCTOBER AT 9AM
Pat Neal, Director of the VIRTUS Program, is going to have an in-person and webinar presentation about all the changes happening in VIRTUS and how to best use them in your parish and school as a Local Administrator.
Webinar | October 15 at 9am: This webinar is geared towards those in our parishes and schools who work with VIRTUS on a regular basis, and anyone is welcome to join! I will send a reminder email in mid-September and another in early October. If you are interested in joining, please register here.This session will be recorded and available in the “Files” section of our Teams channel. For those you interested in joining our Teams submit your request here.
In-person | October 15 at 1pm: Pat and I will join the Business Managers Quarterly Meeting to have an in-person presentation about the automation changes and some of the key features that are beneficial to our schools and parishes. After the presentation there will be time for a Q & A.
Finally, I want to share a number of resources with you. As part of our duty in Safe Environments, accessibility to key documentation is a priority. The list will grow longer as more newsletters go out. For now, I leave you with these:
God Bless,
Maegan Pierson
