General Definitions
Civil law – Codes, laws, regulations or rules, whether civil or criminal, that are not canon law
Clergy – Priests and deacons, incardinated or extern
Cleric – A member of the clergy as defined in this Policy
Destruction – The permanent disposal of documents by a method that renders the documents illegible and not subject to reconstruction
Disposal – Throwing away or discarding documents that do not contain sensitive or confidential information
Documents – All written materials generated, distributed, or maintained by staff members in the performance of their job duties, in all media
Electronic Communications Systems – Email, voice mail, instant messaging, social media, websites, and other communications platforms
Employees – All persons on the payroll of any archdiocesan location
Location – Any parish, school (whether parish or archdiocesan), the Archdiocesan Catholic Center, any Catholic cemetery and mortuary, and any other operating unit in the archdiocese
Media – Paper, electronic mail, text message, social media, or electronic storage device (e.g., flash memory device, floppy disk, hard disk, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, microfilm, microfiche, "cloud," or any similar data storage medium currently in existence or created in the future) used to develop, maintain, or transmit archdiocesan documents
Person in charge – The department head, manager or supervisor of an archdiocesan department, entity or corporation; the pastor, administrator, parish life director, pastoral associate, deacon or other person designated as in charge of a parish; the assistant regional superintendents, or a principal, president, or head of school, as applicable
Records – Documents that require preservation and retention according to this Policy
Religious – Men and women who belong to any organized group that is regulated by the Code of Canon Law (Canons 573 to 746)
Retention period – The time period that records must be maintained to satisfy civil and canon law and operational requirements
Seminarians – Individuals enrolled in the archdiocesan seminary and any archdiocesan house of clerical discernment
Staff – Clergy, religious, seminarians, employees, contractors, and volunteers
Temporal goods - Assets owned by the Church or any of its entities
Volunteers – Persons who do not expect or receive compensation of any kind for performing services in the archdiocese
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