Background checks, inquiries, and stuff like that...

"How is this to be done if not by enquiring into these matters."
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Thus speaks Fr. John Boyle of Ashford, Kent in a post respectfully objecting to a statement made by Bishop Malcom McMahon to the Tablet regarding Church investigation into the private lives of applicants for the headships of Catholic schools:
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"Bishop Malcolm McMahon told The Tablet that the backgrounds of potential school leaders were not the concern of the Church and it should be up to applicants themselves to decide whether they were able to live according to church teaching. “Their family life isn’t scrutinised,” said the bishop. “I’d be rather ashamed if the Church was doing that to people. But we do expect people in leadership in the Church to live out their Christian commitment as best they can.”
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He also said that the Church was not opposed to civil partnerships. “Civil partnerships are precisely what they say they are. They’re not gay marriages or lesbian marriages. They’re simply a legal arrangement between two people so that they can pass on property and other rights in which they were discriminated against before,” he said. “We have many gay people in education and a large number of gay people in the Church, at least the same as the national average. I think a person who is leading a church school should live according to the Church’s teaching whether they are in a civil partnership or not. A civil partnership is not a marriage, it’s not a conjugal relationship.”" - Catholic Education
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Upon first glance the Bishop's statements sound perfectly reasonable inured as we all are in politically correct thinking, but it is an entirely different matter when it impinges upon Church teaching regarding faith and morals, or improprieties which could lead to scandal.  Fr. Boyle's article is a must read as he outlines quite well the importance of inquiring into the lives of those who are given leadership roles in the lives of the faithful and their children.
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"The backgrounds of potential school leaders, indeed of every living soul, is of immense concern to the Church since She is concerned about the salvation, not only of those who lead our schools, but of those whom they are charged to lead and teach. There needs to be some way of ensuring that our teachers are exemplary in their lives. Only in that way can they give example to the pupils and teach coherently what the Church teaches." - Fr. Boyle
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Likewise, the laity are well within their rights to inquire into the lives of those who are charged to lead and teach.