The Eparchial Review Board on the Implementation of Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People Held Its Consecutive Meeting

The Review Board of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma on the implementation of the USCCB Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People held its consecutive meeting on Tuesday, October 22, 2024 at the parish hall of Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ambridge, PA.

L-R: Marika Zaliszczuk, Olga Perkun, Fr. Lubomir Zhybak, Don Fontana, and Fr. Michael Polosky.

The meeting was attended by five of the six Review Board members: Fr. Michael Polosky, eparchy’s Protosyncellus and Pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ambridge, PA and Administrator of Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Aliquippa, PA; Fr. Lubomir Zhybak, eparchy’s Safe Environment Coordinator and pastor of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Youngstown, OH and St. Anne Ukrainian Catholic Church in Austintown, OH; Marika Zalisczuk, eparchy’s Victims Assistance Coordinator; Olga Perkun; and Don Fontana. A member of the board, Dr. Justine Perhosky could not be present at the meeting due to personal reasons.

The meeting began with prayers, led by Fr. Polosky, after which the board members considered the current issues vis-à-vis the safe environment in the eparchy. After reviewing and approving the minutes from the last meeting of December 12, 2023, Fr. Zhybak thanked everyone for having agreed to continue to be on the board for the next five years (till June 27, 2029) whose membership was approved by the eparch of St. Josaphat Eparchy, Bishop Bohdan J. Danylo. Afterwards, the board reviewed the eparchy’s Policy & Procedures for the Protection of Children and Young People (the document was last promulgated by Bishop Danylo on November 15, 2023); no revision to the document was recommended. Moreover, the Safe Environment Training and Background Clearance Requirements, which went into effect in 2022, were also reviewed; a situation with the background clearance procedures in Florida was discussed with a further pending action. A possible audit of each parish and mission was also discussed at the meeting. Fr. Zhybak likewise informed the board that that the eparchy has been found compliant with the data collection requirements for the 2022/2023 Charter audit period as per Stonebridge Business Partners [that forwarded the documents to the Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Washington DC] and that he recently submitted to Stonebridge for review the eparchy’s 2023-2024 data; the eparchy is scheduled to have the next triannual onsite audit by Stonebridge next year (2025) that most likely will take place in October in Parma, OH. Some other issues were also discussed at the meeting.

The encounter was adjourned with a prayer to the Mother of God led by Fr. Zhybak.

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma