Retired FBI agent James Bogner was recently appointed chairman of the National Review Board, an advisory body to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Safe Environments created in 2002 as part of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, also known as the Dallas Charter.
Bogner, a former senior FBI special agent with more than 35 years of law enforcement experience, succeeds outgoing Chair Suzanne Healy, who recently completed her four-year term after leading the board since 2020.
A few days after the August 1 announcement by USCCB President Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese of the Military Services, USA, OSV News spoke with Bogner about his vision for the body, which is working with the U.S. bishops to strengthen 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 experience in law enforcement to leading the National Review Board? What particular skills and strategies do you hope to apply in this new role?
Bogner: Well, I think there are several things. First, as a senior officer in law enforcement, I can get a national picture of trends and situations. And the number one job of law enforcement is to protect the public and keep people safe. I bring that skill to the table.
One of the things I’ve done in law enforcement is audits as an inspector. When I look at the situation here (with the National Review Board), the USCCB has the authority to do annual audits of various dioceses here. I can look at those audits and determine if improvements are needed … and look at the results to decide how (problems) need to be addressed.
The other area of my experience in law enforcement is in what would commonly be called internal affairs, so I get to oversee the integrity of the institution and make sure that it is protected, that justice is done for the employee or offender, and that justice is done for the institution as well.
I also look at the dynamics of strategic planning and review what you have done and where you are going.
I’m very interested in research and trends and throughout my career I’ve asked myself, “What changes are we seeing?” There have been tremendous changes in the technological environment in recent years, so how do we adapt to that and improve our work, advising the bishops? What are we seeing that might help them and give them a comprehensive idea of what’s happening?
We have an incredibly talented group of National Review Board members with … very diverse backgrounds and skill sets. It’s not just law enforcement – it’s victim assistance coordinators, people who have dealt with abuse cases; we have a victim on the board who hears their perspective; we have canon lawyers. … So we have a lot of different perspectives and we try to set a direction and a strategic planning course in a very collaborative way.
OSV News: Generally speaking, where does the Catholic Church in the United States stand in terms of eradicating sexual abuse? What has been accomplished and what remains to be done?
Bogner: In my view, there are two phases to this issue. The first is: what are we doing and how far have we come in meeting the needs of victims and survivors? We look back at the victims of abuse and ask ourselves, “How can we improve what we do?”
One of the newer approaches is to provide trauma-informed treatment to victims or survivors so that we can better understand what they are going through. If you have been a victim of abuse, it is not something that is over immediately. It may be a lifelong issue that they have to deal with and we need to be sensitive to that.
The other part concerns the cases of abuse. What are we doing to reduce the number of cases of abuse? Just over 20 years ago, the bishops developed the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People”, which we know as the Dallas Charter. It contains very specific guidelines on what we must do to improve our protection options here in the Church, what measures must be taken and what responsibility we must assume for appropriate behavior towards the victims and the Church.
Have we been able to reduce the number of clergy abuse cases to any degree? Yes, over the years we have definitely. If you look at the annual reports that we and the USCCB publish each year, there are only 17 cases this year. In the past, there were many more, but there has been a significant effort to combat these cases.
Has it gone down to zero? No, it hasn’t. And that’s why we can’t be satisfied with what we’ve done in the past or here to date. We have to keep dealing with these issues.
We need to continue to do this, particularly at the local level. There is change, not only in the administrative staff, but also in the volunteers, teachers and lay workers. We cannot just say, “Oh, we have trained them in the past and that is good enough.” No, we need to continue that training. We need to keep that focus going forward.
The internet and mobile phones have exposed people to more harmful content than ever before. This needs to be addressed. When we look at safe environment programs, we need to emphasize this aspect more today.
OSV News: Your career in law enforcement and, in many ways, this board appointment have forced you to confront the dark side of humanity. How has your faith helped you do that?
Bogner: A few years ago I heard a speech by Bishop Robert Barron (Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota). He said he was once asked, “Given the bad things that are happening in the Catholic Church, why shouldn’t I just abandon it?”
And his answer was that when you have a problem in an organization and it needs to be solved, you have two options: you either leave or you stay to address the problem and work on a solution.
And I and the members of the National Review Board will stay here and we will deal with the problem.
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