The following statement was issued Jan. 28 by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles:

Today the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times posted stories from unnamed Government sources describing an investigation of the Archdiocese's handling of old sexual abuse cases.

"The leak by the Government is unprofessional and violates Department of Justice guidelines concerning on-going investigations," said Michael Hennigan, Counsel for the Archdiocese. "The Archdiocese has received requests from the United States Attorney's Office for information about a number of individual priests, two of whom are deceased and none of whom are known to be in ministry. We have been and will continue to be fully cooperative with the investigation."

The Archdiocese is not aware of any fact or set of facts that would support a responsible federal investigation of the Archdiocese or of Cardinal Roger Mahony. While the history of clergy sexual abuse in the Church is regrettable, it served as the foundation for broad reforms in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Under Cardinal Mahony's leadership, the Archdiocese has become a model for organizations nationwide in the education, training and detection of every aspect of abuse.

The Archdiocese is calling for an internal investigation of the Government leak to determine the extent and depth of misconduct by those who were responsible for the leak.