As the shepherd of this local Church, I thank you for making a personal commitment to helping us keep our communities both safe and sacred. It is so important that our churches, schools, homes and individual communities are safe for all God’s people – especially our children.

The Safe & Sacred Learning Community^TM by the Diocese of Winona provides information, encourages interactivity, measures understanding and documents results.

Our diocesan safe environment program includes important elements that enable us to keep God's people safe. These include:

• Methods for outreach to parents
• Commitment to ongoing education
• Mechanism for background checks
• Programs for children, young people and adults
• Online learning

The online Safe & Sacred Learning Community^TM currently includes three parts:

• Protecting All Children of God Lesson
  
• Two Essential Commitments :
  - Code of Conduct and
  - Regarding Misconduct

Successful completion of the three lessons is an important step to creating safe environments in our communities. We believe everyone who works with minors including clergy, religious, staff and volunteers, shares the responsibility of creating safe environments and must treat all life as sacred.

God Bless You,

Most Rev. Bernard J. Harrington
Bishop of Winona