New York State has a highly restrictive statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes. Under current law, victims only have until age 23 to file civil cases or seek criminal charges for most types of child sexual abuse. Some of the most serious child sex crimes, such as rape, have no time limit for bringing criminal charges, but only for conduct that occurred in 2001 or later.

A bill that would amend the statute of limitations to allow more victims to seek justice has for years failed to pass the state Legislature. On Thursday, Ms. Underwood urged the Legislature to pass the bill, known as the Child Victims Act, which would allow all victims to file civil suits until age 50 and seek criminal charges until age 28.

But she also urged any victim of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, or anyone who knows about abuse, to participate in her investigation, even if they believe that their information may be outside the statute of limitations for a court case.

“All victim information will be helpful to understanding and reforming the institutional approach of the church,” she said.

The potential scope of the investigations is huge. In the Archdiocese of New York alone, 315 victims of sex abuse by clergy have recently received compensation through an independent program sponsored by the church. In the Diocese of Brooklyn, some 250 victims have filed claims through a similar program. These programs did not offer compensation to victims abused by priests working for religious orders, so many more victims may reach out to report abuse through the hotline.

The Diocese of Buffalo has been swamped with abuse revelations in recent months. In February, a retired priest admitted to The Buffalo News that he had molested probably dozens of boys at multiple parishes from the late 1960s until the 1980s. Since then, abuse by other priests has also come to light, raising questions of why it was kept secret for so long.

There have been calls for the bishop of Buffalo, Richard J. Malone, to resign, but he has said he will not. In contrast, the bishop of Albany, Edward Scharfenberger, has taken a more proactive approach to the crisis, recently sending a letter to parishioners telling them that he had asked the Albany district attorney to review the diocese’s records on sex abuse allegations.