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	Retired Police Officer Named Head of Child Protection Office By Agostino Bono The Tidings [Washington DC] April 22, 2005 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. "I'll work tirelessly to continue to give victims a voice, to encourage them to come forward for healing and to strengthen the protection mechanisms for children which were implemented in the charter," Kettelkamp said, referring to the bishops' 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People." Msgr. Fay thanked the National Review Board and senior USCCB staff for helping in the search for the new executive director. "Teresa Kettelkamp brings an extraordinary wealth of experience and complete commitment to the protection of children and young people," he said. "I look forward to the contributions she will make in further strengthening this crucially important work for the church in our country." Kettelkamp, after retiring from the state police, became part of the teams organized by the Gavin Group Inc., of Boston and contracted by the child protection office to conduct the annual audits of dioceses and eparchies. She was a member of teams that visited 16 dioceses and eparchies in 2003 and 2004. Her Illinois police work at one time involved supervising 28 specially trained agents in the department responsible for the investigation and recovery of missing children. Many of the children were victims of sexual abuse. As head of the forensic service, she managed the second largest forensic system in the nation and the third largest in the world. Her office provided laboratory services to local, state and federal criminal justice agencies. Kettelkamp began her state police career investigating white-collar crime and public corruption cases. She was also in charge of the Division of Internal Investigation, which handles cases of misconduct in the agency and in the executive branch of the state government. Kettelkamp has lived in Springfield, Ill., where she has been a lector and eucharistic minister at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. In an interview with Catholic News Service, Kettelkamp described herself as a "strong Catholic" whose growing concern for the church caused her to seek involvement in child abuse prevention programs. "Child sex abuse has embarrassed all Catholics. If I can help, I'm happy to do so," she said. The challenges now are "to remain vigilant" and to help dioceses and eparchies strengthen prevention and education programs, she said. "There are still victims out there," she said. "The church environment is better now for victims to come forward." Dioceses and eparchies have mechanisms in place such as victims' assistance coordinators, review boards to quickly examine allegations and safe-environment education programs, she said. Regarding the review of the charter and the legal norms accompanying it that the bishops plan to carry out at their June meeting in Chicago, Kettelkamp said she favors keeping the "zero tolerance" policy by which any priest or deacon found to have abused a child --- even if only once --- is removed from ministry. "There is no one time," she said. "There may be only one credible accusation that comes forward. But you can't discount the fact that he offended before or will offend again." Kettelkamp also opposed suggestions to develop different levels of penalties for different types of child sex abuse. Advocates of graduated penalties have argued that a cleric who only touches a child should not be given the same penalty as a cleric who has raped numerous children. "A lesser crime is a red flag to a more serious problem," she said. "If you abuse trust, you don't have a place in the clergy of the Catholic Church." Kettelkamp said that the sex abuse scandal has not shaken her faith. "The faith can't hinge on man's imperfections," she said.
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