Fifteen months into her job, the head of the U.S. bishops’ Office for Child and Youth Protection says while much progress has been made nationwide to reach out to victims of clergy sexual abuse and to protect children from future abuse, she hopes to identify more ways to address the church’s sexual abuse crisis.

“Problems of this magnitude are not fixed overnight. It will continue to take a concerted effort on the part of many, one that involves openness and transparency,” said Kathleen McChesney in an interview with The Herald March 17.

McChesney, who formerly held the No. 3 post at the FBI and brought 30 years of experience in law enforcement to her current position, was at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in Sacramento to meet with victim assistance and safe environment coordinators from the state’s dioceses and archdioceses.

The U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” adopted in June 2002 established the national office she directs to help individual dioceses to create “safe environment programs,” to assist the church’s provinces in finding ways to monitor how well the charter’s policies are followed, and to produce an annual report on progress made in implementing the charter.

McChesney said the results of the first national audit report released in January, which showed that nearly 90 percent of U.S. Catholic dioceses were in compliance with the bishops’ national policy, was “a significant first step” in helping to fulfill the vision set out by the bishops’ charter.

The national office, working with the bishops’ National Review Board, is in the process of implementing some of the substantial list of nationwide recommendations in the audit report to improve the church’s response to sexual abuse, she said.

The recommendations included a number of proposals that could strengthen the charter itself or its implementation procedures when the bishops consider possible revisions later this year, she said.

The report recommended that the on-site audit procedure used in dioceses in 2003 be used again for the 2004 audit. McChesney said the bishops would determine within the next month the structure for the diocesan audits in 2004 and in future years.

She said her office “needs a mechanism of some sort to measure yearly progress” and to prepare the public annual report describing the compliance of each diocese to the charter’s provisions.

“My sense now is that any remaining items from the audits are being completed on a daily basis around the country, to comply with the charter and to strengthen efforts already in place to protect children,” she said.

The audit report also recommended that the bishops sponsor a new national study of (voluntary) victims/survivors to identify better methods for responding to complaints of sexual abuse by clergy or other church personnel.

McChensey said the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse has already reviewed that recommendation and backed it, and her office has been putting together “the framework of a study we’d like to carry out as soon as possible.”

A broader study of victims’ views on church handling of their cases could uncover valuable information on the church’s best responses to victims following an allegation, she said.

No single approach works for all victims, but such a study “could identify things that worked well and those that didn’t,” McChesney said. “It could point to ways dioceses can do things better, such as kinds of things people should say or not say. It could also address more complex issues, such as dioceses supporting and encouraging more research into effective therapies for victims.”

McChesney said one of the challenges of her work is continuing to educate bishops, clergy and laity about the need for unlimited outreach, caring and concern for victims/survivors and their families.

“Everyone needs to understand what outreach means,” she noted. “It doesn’t mean waiting for people to come in and report abuse. It means trying to find people who haven’t reported who are ready to report, because not everyone is and not everyone will report. Some people carry for a lifetime the instances of abuse. And some will never be comfortable with reporting.”

Outreach to victims has to include advertising in the secular and diocesan media, in parish bulletins, and “through other kinds of communications between pastors and laity,” she said. “It is particularly important that secular media are involved, because many victims have disassociated themselves from the church.”

McChesney said the first comprehensive national study of the number of clergymen accused of sex abuse with a minor from 1950 to 2002, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and released Feb. 27 by the National Review Board, “only gives us the minimums as far as the number of sexual abuse victims.”

The study said that 4,392 clergymen — almost all priests — were accused of abusing 10,667 people, with 75 percent of the incidents taking place between 1960 and 1984.

“We never knew any numbers before this study,” McChesney said. “What we also know now is that there were more victims than this — how many more, we don’t know, but it doesn’t matter because there were lots. We hope additional victims will come forward for the kind of pastoral care they deserve, if they want it.”

McChesney said the report released by the National Review Board on the causes of the clergy sexual abuse crisis — often scathing in its critique of Catholic hierarchical policies and practices — is “basically a call to lay people to find ways to become more involved, because their involvement will probably help prevent problems.”

“A lot of lay people say ‘I wasn’t part of the sex abuse problem — I’m just a parishioner, I didn’t see anything, and I’m not impacted by it on a personal level,’” she said. “They think it is horrible and the people who got the church into this problem are the people who should deal with it.

“But everyone who is a member of the church has to help heal the part of the body that has caused the damage, if the body is to be whole again. The fact is, the church is there for individuals when they go through difficulties, sometimes of their own doing. This particular problem is one in which individuals can, in turn, help the church through its crisis.”

McChesney acknowledged that many are still skeptical of any effort made by the bishops to confront the issue of sexual abuse, or doubt the effectiveness of the National Review Board or her office to create safe church settings, and to provide pastoral care to victims and response mechanisms to prevent future abuse.

“Skepticism can be healthy, because it raises the bar on behavior and performance and keeps the focus on things that are important,” she said.

“Some things have been accomplished, but more needs to be done. Everyone — both skeptics and optimists — needs to continue to watch and be vigilant as to the efforts of the church and to make certain that no one lets up on their commitment to protecting children.”

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