St. Paul-minneapolis Archdiocese Names Kinsale Management Consulting to Review Priest Files

By Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press
November 14, 2013

http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_24526973/st-paul-minneapolis-archdiocese-names-kinsale-management-consulting

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has hired a Los Angeles-based management consulting firm to review clergy files in the wake of continuing revelations of sexual misconduct by priests.

Kinsale Management Consulting, led by Kathleen McChesney, in early December will look at "all clergy in active ministry," said a statement Thursday by archdiocese spokesman Jim Accurso.

The firm's website says it has "performed security strategy and crisis management reviews for multinational corporations and nonprofit agencies" and "confidential internal investigations of employee misconduct," among other services.

McChesney spent 24 years with the FBI, retiring at the No. 3 position in the agency, the archdiocese said. She also led the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Child and Youth Protection and worked as vice president for global security for the Walt Disney Co. after her career in law enforcement, according to online biographies.

At the bishops' office, she "developed and oversaw a national compliance mechanism to ensure that all Catholic dioceses complied with civil laws and internal policies relative to the prevention, reporting and response to the sexual abuse of minors," the archdiocese statement said.

McChesney most recently completed a review of sexual abuse in juvenile justice facilities for the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.

"We are confident in the credentials and relevant expertise of Kinsale Management Consulting to conduct a thorough review of our clergy files," Reginald Whitt, the vicar of ministerial standards for the archdiocese, said in the written statement.

Neither McChesney nor her firm could be reached Thursday. The Kinsale website did not list a phone number, and a contact link was not functioning.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, called McChesney a "quintessential bureaucrat."

"It's very smart and safe for (Archbishop John) Nienstedt to hire McChesney," said SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris. "She did the bidding for bishops a decade ago, and she'll do this bishop's bidding now."

While the archdiocese has described the process as a "third-party review," attorney Mike Finnegan said McChesney is "more of an insider than an outsider here."

"I'm also concerned that the only information she'll have access to is information given to her by Archbishop Nienstedt and his attorneys," said Finnegan, who with Jeff Anderson represents child sexual abuse victims.

He said he suspected McChesney would be required to keep everything she uncovers confidential. "And at the end of this process ... everything is controlled by Archbishop Nienstedt."

If the archbishop truly wanted to protect children, he would immediately turn all clergy files over to police, Finnegan said.

News accounts spurred in part by a whistleblower have exposed failures by top archdiocese officials to report to police possible criminal activity by priests. Victims of alleged past abuse have filed lawsuits against priests in recent months, made possible because of new legislation that temporarily lifts the civil statute of limitations for underage sex abuse victims.

Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.

Contact: egurnon@pioneerpress.com