WASHINGTON (DC)
The Tidings
By Agostino Bono
The U.S. bishops have hired the second female law enforcement officer to head their office that is responsible for helping them apply their child sex abuse prevention policies.
She is Teresa Kettelkamp, who helped conduct the annual audits in 2003 and 2004 of U.S. dioceses and Eastern-rite eparchies to monitor compliance with the bishops' abuse policies.
The announcement of her appointment as executive director of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection was made April 15 in a statement by Msgr. William Fay, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Kettelkamp retired in 2003 as deputy director of the Illinois State Police Division of Forensic Services after 29 years with the Illinois police force. She was the first woman to attain the rank of colonel in the Illinois State Police.
Kettelkamp began her new post at USCCB headquarters in Washington April 13. She replaced Kathleen McChesney, who resigned in February after heading the office since its inception in December 2002. McChesney was the highest ranking female official in the FBI before taking the USCCB post.