Last November, she was a top-ranking F.B.I. agent. Now she’s working with the U.S. bishops to end the sex-abuse crisis.
Most people would run from a job offer to clean house for the U.S. bishops in the midst of the current crisis. Not Kathleen McChesney. She left a prestigious F.B.I. position last December to head the U.S. bishops’ new Office of Child and Youth Protection. Now she relishes the opportunity to bring her deep experience in law enforcement and management to the service of her Church. When she left the Bureau, at 51, this lifelong Catholic had established herself as one of the most distinguished women in law enforcement.
In mid-January, at the U.S. bishops’ conference headquarters in Washington, D.C., she stopped for an interview with St. Anthony Messenger. We talked about her career, the challenges of her new job and the road ahead. Her assignment is to help ensure that every U.S. diocese complies with the new U.S.-Vatican requirements on youth protection.
