Hispanics resist plan for dioces an fingerprinting

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Catholic dioceses across the nation that have installed strict policies on who is allowed access to their children are wrestling with a new headache: how to deal with Hispanic church members who refuse to submit to background checks.

At issue locally is the Diocese of Arlington's new policy mandating the fingerprinting of priests, seminarians, nuns, church employees and lay volunteers who work with children. Half of the 394,000-member diocese may be Hispanic, including thousands of undocumented immigrants.

"We could lose many volunteers," said the Rev. Ovidio Pecharroman, director of the diocesan Office of Spanish Ministry. "Most of the people working in the Catholic Church are volunteers; whether legal or illegal, I don't know."

Many immigrant volunteers affected by the new policy work in a range of church duties, such as nursery care and chaperoning high school youths, at the 29 churches in the diocese that offer Spanish-language Masses.

On Aug. 12, Bishop Paul Loverde published a directive mandating up to 15,000 people in 72 parishes and mission churches be fingerprinted and submit to police background checks.

Because the directive has been published in English only, Father Pecharroman said, reactions are just filtering in to the church.

"I will just have to appeal to people," he said.

Several priests in the diocese are refusing to be fingerprinted for privacy reasons and have asked the Vatican for clarification on why they must do so under canon law.

"This will dry up the work among Hispanics," one priest said on the condition of anonymity. "Even the legal workers won't understand the system."

The diocese acknowledges that some clergy are unhappy about the process.