U.S. Bishops Pick Leader From Bankrupt Diocese

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 16, 2004; Page A03

Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., who plans to declare his diocese in bankruptcy because of sexual abuse claims, was elected yesterday as the next president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

At the same time, Kathleen McChesney, the former FBI agent who established the bishops' Office of Child Protection, announced that she will step down in February.

The developments came as the bishops began their semiannual meeting in Washington and showed they are still grappling with the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church nearly three years after it erupted in Boston and a year after their outgoing president, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., proclaimed that they had "turned the corner