WASHINGTON - The highest ranking woman in the FBI has been hired to police the Catholic Church as it enacts policies aimed at preventing a repeat of the sexual abuse scandal this year that removed hundreds of priests and undermined parishioners' trust.

Kathleen McChesney, 51, who has led the FBI's efforts to improve relations between federal and local law enforcement, was named director of the U.S. bishops' Office for Child and Youth Protection yesterday.

The creation of the office was a key part of the sexual abuse policy adopted by the bishops in June and revised last week by a joint committee of bishops and Vatican officials. The bishops will vote on the revised policy next week in Washington.

At a news conference at the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, McChesney drew a parallel between the crisis in the Catholic Church and recent scandals that have beset the FBI.

"I believe the Catholic Church has suffered because of acts of a few. I come from an institution where we have suffered for the acts of a few," she said.

It is vital to the mission of both institutions to maintain the faith of the people they serve, she said.

"Because of the acts of a few, the others who are affected by it, who the reflection is cast upon, must work very hard to restore the trust and credibility and faith," she said. "And I hope I can help to do that."

McChesney's principal duties include helping the nation's Catholic dioceses follow the abuse policy once the Vatican approves it. She will be expected to produce an annual report documenting adherence to the policy, singling out any diocese or bishop not complying.

She also will work with the church's National Review Board to produce a report analyzing the causes of the sexual abuse crisis.

McChesney and the review board will investigate "exactly what happened and why it happened, where there have been deficiencies and where improvements can be made," said attorney Robert S. Bennett, chairman of the search committee that selected McChesney.

A representative from the largest group of Catholic sexual abuse victims praised the bishops for choosing someone from law enforcement.

"It is important that the individual who looks at abuse cases for this commission be an independent professional with experience in investigating crime and a healthy degree of skepticism toward those who have concealed crimes," said Janet Patterson of Conway Springs, Kansas, a member of the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

But the Rev. Robert Silva, executive director of the National Federation of Priests Councils, who has been critical of zero-tolerance policies that offer little protection for the rights of priests, said he was troubled that the bishops turned to someone in law enforcement to oversee their new policy.

"I hope that she will be able to balance that aggressive investigative side with a sense of church discipleship and the mission of reconciliation," he said.

McChesney worked for the FBI for nearly 25 years, rising through the ranks to become the No. 3 official, overseeing the activities of 4,700 employees and budgets exceeding $1.1 billion.

"Kathleen brought to the FBI the personal and professional qualities that we hold highest," said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. "She will be missed."

But McChesney said her sadness over what the scandal has done to the church, to which she has belonged since birth, spurred her to accept the job.

"The results of [the scandal] are bad, and the reflection of it on the entire institution is bad," she said. "And people lose faith in the institution at various levels.

"The church is so important that everything everybody can do to restore that faith and that trust, [it] is essential that we do it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.