Kathleen McChesney
Kathleen L. McChesney, former executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office of Child Protection, will give a lecture, “Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: Where Are We Now?” at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 21 (Monday) in the auditorium of the University of Notre Dame’s McKenna Hall.
In 2002, McChesney, then executive assistant director for law enforcement, the third highest position in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, left a 32-year-long law enforcement career to direct a newly launched USCCB initiative to prevent the abuse of children within church environments and to develop an audit mechanism to ensure that Catholic bishops were responding to reports of sexual abuse in conformance with the law and church standards. During the next three years, she worked with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to develop an unprecedented study of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church and prepared a series of public reports on the crisis of sexual abuse of children in church settings.
McChesney also will deliver a Notre Dame Provost’s Distinguished Women’s Lecture, “The Privilege to Serve: Leadership the FBI Way” at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 22 (Tuesday) in the McCartan Courtroom of the Eck Hall of Law.
McChesney’s Notre Dame visit is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, the Center for Social Concerns, the Department of Theology, the Institute for Church Life and the Notre Dame Law School.
Contact: Cathleen Kaveny, 574-631-7844