When the 17 lectors at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Shadyside learned they would have to undergo national criminal background checks to continue reading the Bible aloud at Mass, two quit.<\/p>\n
Dr. Mark Stehlik, the lector coordinator, says he doesn’t think the two were hiding anything. They simply resented the intrusion into their privacy and were hurt by the church’s lack of trust, he says.<\/p>\n
In 2004 Dr. Stehlik cheerfully submitted to a state background check in order to coach at the parish school. But now he wonders whether expanding the requirement to volunteers with little official interaction with minors is wise or even helpful in preventing child sexual abuse.<\/p>\n
“For a community, meaning the Catholic community, that has been built up on the backs of willing parish volunteers, there had better be a really good, verifiable return to justify putting anything onerous in the way of that volunteerism. In my mind, that return is just not there,” said Dr. Stehlik, 49, a father of two and a lector since eighth grade.<\/p>\n
“We are paying a huge price for a very small likelihood of something actually happening.”<\/p>\n