46 claims filed in 2 months to priest abuse victims program

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2016 file photo, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, speaks to reporters during a news conference in New York announcing a new program intended to provide reconciliation and compensation for victims of sexual abuse by clergy. The new compensation process set up by the Archdiocese of New York itself, potentially the most extensive effort of its kind to date, lets people take claims, often too old for court, to a noted outside mediator while keeping painful details private. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) (The Associated Press)

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FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2016 file photo, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, right, listens as Kenneth Feinberg speaks to reporters during a news conference in New York announcing a new program intended to provide reconciliation and compensation for victims of sexual abuse by clergy. The new compensation process set up by the Archdiocese of New York itself, potentially the most extensive effort of its kind to date, lets people take claims, often too old for court, to a noted outside mediator while keeping painful details private. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2016 file photo, Kenneth Feinberg, second from left, speaks while Camille Biros, left, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, second from right, and former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly listen during a news conference in New York announcing a new program intended to provide reconciliation and compensation for victims of sexual abuse by clergy. The new compensation process set up by the Archdiocese of New York itself, potentially the most extensive effort of its kind to date, lets people take claims, often too old for court, to a noted outside mediator while keeping painful details private. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) (The Associated Press)

NEW YORK – In less than two months, 46 people have filed claims in a compensation program for people abused by Roman Catholic priests in New York.

The Archdiocese of New York established the initiative. It could become the church's largest program of its kind to date. The archdiocese already had heard from 170 abuse accusers before announcing the program Oct. 6.

It lets people take claims to an outside mediator when the allegations are often too old for court. The process lets victims keep painful details private.

But victims' advocates note that the archdiocese hasn't given any estimate of the payouts or the total it will spend. Some activists see the program as a church tactic to counter pressure to let decades-old child sexual abuse cases go to court.