Safety Awareness Program

As the Catholic faithful of the Valley, we share responsibility for the life and mission of the Church. Each of us is called to celebrate, promote, and when necessary to defend the life and dignity of every person. This awesome responsibility demands that we treat everyone with respect, do what we can to see that harm is never brought to others, especially minors and vulnerable adults, and seek to bring healing for those who have been harmed.

To help achieve these ends, the Diocese of Brownsville has taken the following steps:

• Appointed an Assistance Coordinator to offer immediate assistance to victims.
• Adopted new Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines for Ethical and Responsible Conduct in  Ministry.
• Introduced a nationally recognized safe environment program of education and prevention of child sexual abuse called Protecting God’s Children.
• Established a policy requiring criminal background checks of all clergy and religious, of all church employees, and of all volunteers who have regular contact with minors or vulnerable adults.

The Diocese of Brownsville continues in its long-standing positive and proactive approach to this sensitive issue. Sexual abuse of children is not tolerated and timely responses are made to all allegations of violations of sexual boundaries.

The Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service (reportbishopabuse.org or (800) 276-1562) has been established to receive reports of sexual abuse and related misconduct by bishops and to relay those reports to proper Church authorities for investigation. Where a report includes a crime, such as the sexual abuse of a minor, it will also be reported to civil authorities. Otherwise, reports will be kept confidential.

This service is intended only for the reporting of sexual abuse by a current or former bishop. Other concerns or complaints about a bishop can be expressed directly to the Diocese of Brownsville by using our Contact page.

If you have any other kind of complaint about a bishop — such as parish assignments, church closings or homily contents — please address those directly to the Diocese.

El Servicio de Reporte de Abuso de Obispos Católicos, (reportbishopabuse.org ó (800) 276-1562) se ha establecido para recibir informes de abuso sexual y mala conducta relacionada por parte de los obispos, y para transmitir esos informes a las autoridades de la Iglesia correspondientes para su investigación. Cuando un informe incluye un delito, como el abuso sexual de un menor, también se informará a las autoridades civiles. De lo contrario, los informes se mantendrán confidenciales.

Este servicio está destinado únicamente a la denuncia de abuso sexual por parte de un obispo actual o anterior. Otras inquietudes o quejas sobre un obispo se pueden expresar directamente al la diócesis utilizando nuestra página de contacto.

Si tiene algún otro tipo de queja sobre un obispo, como las asignaciones parroquiales, el cierre de iglesias o el contenido de la homilía, diríjase directamente a la Diócesis.

The Diocese has recently updated its policies for clergy, religious, employees, and volunteers in this area. The policies are now known as "Policies, Procedures and Guidelines for Ethical and Responsible Conduct in Ministry", and include norms of conduct, preventive measures, directions for the reporting of suspicious behavior or for making sexual abuse allegations, investigative procedures, and disciplinary steps to be taken as is appropriate.

• Bishop’s letter promulgating the 2015 revision to the below documents
• 2016 Ethical and Responsible Conduct in the Ministry
• 2016 Etica y Conducta Responsable en el Ministerio
• 2015 Revision of Supplementary Norms for Clergy and Religious
• 2015 Normas Suplementarias para el Clerigo y Religiosos