New review board chair: ‘We can’t be satisfied’ until there is zero abuse in church

Retired FBI official James Bogner was recently named chair of the National Review Board, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ consultative safe environment body established in 2002 under the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” also known as the Dallas Charter.

A former high-level FBI special agent with more than 35 years of law enforcement experience, Bogner succeeds outgoing chair Suzanne Healy, who recently completed her four-year term, having led the board since 2020.

Days after the Aug. 1 announcement by USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, OSV News spoke with Bogner about his vision for the board as it works with the U.S. bishops in strengthening protections against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OSV News: How do you hope to bring your extensive and high-level law enforcement experience to leading the National Review Board? What particular skills and strategies do you hope to apply to this new role?

Bogner: Well, I think there are several things. Number one, being a senior executive in law enforcement, I am able to see a countrywide picture of trends and of situations. And the first mission of law enforcement is to protect the public, to ensure that people are safe, so I bring that skill.

Some of the background that I’ve had in law enforcement has been in audits as an inspector. So looking at situations here (with the National Review Board), the USCCB is authorized to conduct annual audits of various dioceses here, so I am able to look at those audits, see if any improvement needs to be made … and look at the results to see how (issues) need to be addressed.

The other area of my law enforcement experience was in what you would commonly refer to as internal affairs. So I am able to look at the integrity of the institution and ensure that it is protected here, that there’s justice for the employee or the offender, and there’s also justice for the institution.

I also look at the dynamics of strategic planning, reviewing what you’ve done and where you’re going to go.

I’m very much interested in research and trends, and have been throughout my career, asking, “What changes are we seeing?” In the last few years, we’ve had tremendous changes in the technological environment. So how are we adjusting to that and improving what we’re doing, advising the bishops? What are we seeing that would help them and fully give them an idea of what is happening?

We have an incredibly talented group of National Review Board members, (with) … very diverse backgrounds and skill sets. It’s not all law enforcement — it’s victim assistance coordinators, people that have had to deal with abuse issues; we have a victim survivor on the board to hear that perspective; we have canon lawyers. … So we have a lot of different perspectives, and we’re trying to chart a direction and a strategic planning course in a very collaborative manner.

OSV News: Broadly speaking, where is the Catholic Church in the U.S. at in terms of eradicating sexual abuse? What has been accomplished, and what remains to be done?

Bogner: From my perspective, I think there are kind of two phases to this issue. One is, what are we doing and how have we progressed as far as addressing the needs of victims, of survivors — looking back to those that have been abused and asking, “How are we improving in what we’re doing?”

So one of the more recent approaches is dealing with victims or survivors in a trauma-informed manner, so that we understand better what they’re going through. If you’ve been the victim of abuse, that is not something that is over right away. It’s perhaps a lifelong issue that they’re dealing with, and we need to be sensitive to that.

The other part of it is the situations of abuse. What are we doing to reduce the number of abuses? A little over 20 years ago, the bishops developed the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” which we know as the Dallas Charter, and it has very specific elements in it as to what we need to do to improve our safeguarding capabilities here in the church, what actions to take, along with accountability for acting appropriately for victims and for the church.

Now, have we been somewhat successful in reducing the number of clerical abuse cases? Yes, absolutely over the years. If you look at the annual reports that we and the USCCB publishes annually, this year it was down to 17 cases. Historically, it was many more than that, but substantial efforts have been made to address those abuses.

Is it down to zero? No, it isn’t. And so we can’t be satisfied with what we have done in the past or up to date here. We need to continue to address these issues.

We also need to continue to do that at the local level in particular. There are changes in not only clerical personnel, but in volunteers, teachers, lay staff. We can’t just say, “Oh, well, we’ve trained those in the past and that’s good enough.” No, we need to continue that training. We need to continue that focus in the future.

With the internet and cellphones, the exposure of people to harmful content is so much greater than what we’ve had before. So you’ve got to combat that. When we look at safe environment programs, we need to stress that aspect more these days.

OSV News: Your career in law enforcement and in many ways this board appointment have required you to deal with the dark side of humanity. How has your faith helped you in this regard?

Bogner: A few years ago, I saw a speech by Bishop Robert Barron (Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota), and he said he was once asked, “With some of the bad things happening in the Catholic Church, why shouldn’t I just abandon it?”

And his answer was that when you have a problem in any organization and it needs to be addressed, you have two choices: You either leave, or you stay to address the issue and work on the solution.

And I along with the members of the National Review Board are staying, and we’re addressing it.

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