Omahan appointed to lead role in advising U.S. bishops on protecting minors

An Omahan with a long tenure with the FBI and years of service with the Archdiocese of Omaha has been appointed to help protect minors as chairman of the National Review Board for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

James Bogner was appointed to the post by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the USCCB and head of the Archdiocese for Military Services, USA.

Bogner has served on the National Review Board since 2020.

The board is a lay advisory body to the bishops on the protection of minors. It advises the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People and works closely with the USCCB’s Secretariat of Child Protection, in accordance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which the bishops adopted in 2002.

Bogner chairs the Archdiocese of Omaha’s Advisory Review Board and the Ministerial Misconduct Board. He also leads the Missionary Society of St. Columban’s United States Review Board.

He replaces Suzanne Healy as chair of the National Review Board. She served four years in that role.

Archbishop Broglio thanked Healy for her leadership and service as he welcomed Bogner.

“We have witnessed great strides and challenges in the continued and ongoing efforts for the Catholic Church in the United States to strengthen and renew her efforts for the protection of young people and the healing of victims,” Archbishop Broglio said in a news release. “I thank Mrs. Healy for her longtime service on this most crucial issue, and I look forward working with the NRB under the leadership of Mr. Bogner to continuing that process in the future.”

Bogner is a retired senior executive special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation with over 35 years of law enforcement experience both at the municipal and federal levels.

During his FBI career, he served as the chief of the FBI’s internal affairs/adjudication and inspection units. He was the assistant special agent-in-charge in Oklahoma City after the 1995 domestic terrorist attack on the federal building.

He served in the senior executive service in Washington, D.C., and later as special agent-in-charge of FBI offices in the Midwest over Nebraska and Iowa.

Bogner later served as the first assistant federal security director developing procedures and protocols for airport security for law enforcement in Nebraska and Iowa after the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

He graduated from the FBI’s National Executive Institute, has a master’s degree in Administration of Justice, and was an adjunct faculty member in the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s criminal justice program.

The lifelong Catholic has served as parish council president at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Omaha, providing data analysis and strategic planning. He continues to be an active member of the Knights of Columbus.

“I continue to be honored and inspired while serving on Archbishop George Lucas’ Advisory Review Board, where I see first-hand the success of our efforts to protect the children of our Church and heal its wounds,” Bogner had said upon news of his new leadership role.

“This national appointment gives me the opportunity to join a distinguished and dedicated board which helps influence and shape the national policy and procedures of the USCCB in regards to protecting children.”

Archbishop Lucas appointed Bogner to the archdiocese Review Board in 2013.

“Jim will bring the same experience and integrity to the National Review Board that he has given to this important work in the archdiocese,” Archbishop Lucas has said. “He is an excellent choice.”

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