The rule follows an ‘unprecedented review’ of archdiocesan of safety policies and personnel records.
The Archdiocese of Detroit will require hundreds of employees and clergy to undergo fingerprinting under rules implemented by Archbishop Edward Weisenburger to ensure “the protection of children and vulnerable adults.”
The archbishop said in a March 11 letter to the archdiocese that upon taking the helm in Detroit in 2025 he accepted the responsibility of “addressing the wounds caused by clergy sexual abuse” as well as “strengthening the Church’s commitment to accountability and protection.”
Though it has avoided filing for bankruptcy over abuse lawsuits, the archdiocese has paid out millions of dollars in settlements to Church abuse victims. Archbishop Weisenburger in his message said such abuse “must not be minimized, explained away, or forgotten.”
The archbishop said he instituted a “comprehensive and unprecedented review” of both archdiocesan safety policies and personnel records. The team in charge of the review scrutinized every known case of clergy misconduct over roughly the past century, he said.
Among the “enhanced safeguards” that arose from this review, Weisenburger said, is a “diocesan-wide fingerprinting policy,” one that applies to every archdiocesan employee — including clergy, religious, and lay — as well
