BUFFALO, N.Y. — The civil investigation into the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse cases launched by the state attorney general is a good first step.

The action will allow the attorney general’s office to subpoena documents from diocese across the state. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn has volunteered his office to help go through the paperwork as it becomes available.

"If it leads to, perhaps, the necessity of a criminal grand jury or doing a criminal investigation, then we will work together on that as well," Flynn said.

Flynn says this route makes the most sense because his office wouldn't be able to do a full investigation of the Buffalo Diocese on his own.

"The Buffalo Diocese covers all eight counties of Western New York. I only have jurisdiction in Erie County," Flynn said.

Flynn says he has no idea how long the investigation could take, noting that a similar investigation in Pennsylvania took two years.

He cautions as well that it will be challenging to bring forward criminal charges because of a five-year-statute of limitation on felonies and a one-year statute of limitation on misdemeanors.

"There's a good chance here that in this statewide investigation the AG's doing that there's gonna be no cases that are going to be able to be prosecuted," Flynn said.

Flynn echoes Attorney General Barbara Underwood's call for the New York State Legislature to pass the Child Victims Act, which would allow all victims to file civil suits until age 50 and seek criminal charges until age 28.

Under current law, victims have until age 23 to file civil cases or seek criminal charges for most types of child sexual abuse.

In a statement provided Thursday, outgoing Buffalo Diocese Communications Director George Richert said “Our diocese will cooperate with any investigation initiated by the New York State Attorney General or District Attorney.”

Victims and anyone with information about abuse can call the clergy abuse hotline at 1-800-771-7755, or report it online.