BOSTON -- A grand jury is now investigating whether Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law and other church leaders should face criminal charges in the ongoing church sex abuse scandal.

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The panel has for weeks been looking at evidence, trying to determine whether Law and other church officials put priests in positions where they could sexually abuse children, according to both the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe.

NewsCenter 5's Ed Harding said that church officials have not commented yet.

It is against the law for prosecutors to discuss the proceedings of a secret grand jury investigation, so there are few details from the state Attorney General's office.

"Right now we're gathering information. We will go where the evidence takes us," said Attorney General Tom Reilly in early April, discussing documents that were turned over in the Fr. Paul Shanley case.

At the time, Reilly said his office had an obligation to look at archdiocese records to determine whether archdiocese officials should be held criminally responsible in cases where former priests have been accused of sexually molesting and assaulting boys.

In Wednesday's Globe an unnamed law enforcement source is cited in a front page story that says Reilly has convened a grand jury, although it was not determined when the grand jury began meeting. The story says the "attorney general's office wanted to explore all prosecutorial avenues before deciding whether the actions or inactions of church supervisors amounted to criminal conduct."

Several witnesses were quoted as saying they have already been interviewed by investigators from the attorney general's office. Possible charges, according to legal experts, are accessory to a crime, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, although state laws make it difficult to charge someone for putting another person in a position to commit a crime.