The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is under investigation by federal authorities for the possible covering up of sexual crimes against minors by priests.

The investigation began late last year and is still in a fact-finding state, but subpoenas have been issued and witnesses called to determine if criminal charges will be filed.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney said that 22 priests were named in the documents but that none of them remain in the priesthood.

Back in 2007, this same Archdiocese payed out $660 million to 508 alleged victims,

This is also not the first time that federal authorities have gotten involved in the Catholic Church’s sex scandals.

While most of the investigations have been done by state and local officials, federal investigators also have gotten involved at times. In 2005, the Archdiocese of Boston resolved a federal criminal investigation into whether the church officials had withheld information about an allegedly abusive priest. The archdiocese, which denied any criminal wrongdoing, agreed to new disclosure requirements and audits regarding its child-protection practices.

The gist of the investigation is that authorities within the church failed to do enough to protect children from predatory priests.

Perhaps the real investigation should be into why so many priests are pedophiliac scumbags, and why these churches insist on their own brand of vigilante-justice, only without the vigilante part. Oh, and justice means ignoring. There are much bigger crimes here, and if the Catholic Church were any other type of “business” with all of the accusations remaining the same, the Church would have been shut down by now.

I’m sure the obligatory investigation will result in some more money being forked over to victims, but no actual changes will be filed that make any real changes. Surely this will result in another example of the Church being more powerful than anything that can challenge it.

So the real question, I suppose, is just how many children need to be abused, and how much proof of a cover up do you need before people stop trusting the Catholic Church with their children?

I’m hoping that this time the feds take a stand and make the Church understand that no matter what their codes say, when they operate inside of the boundaries of the United States, they are subject to the laws of the state.

It won’t happen, but I can hope.

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