Australia's most senior Catholic leaders delivered a scathing assessment of their church's past approach to victims of child sexual abuse, telling a royal commission it was "criminal negligence" and "a catastrophic failure".
Five metropolitan archbishops appeared before a packed hearing room at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining Catholic church authorities in a three-week inquiry.
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Child abuse Royal Commission: a look back
Painful and difficult stories in their thousands emerge from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Sydney archbishop Anthony Fisher described the church's response to victims as "criminal negligence".
"There were people who were just like rabbits in the headlights, they had no idea what to do and their performance was appalling," he said.
Melbourne archbishop Denis Hart told the inquiry past approaches were "totally, totally inadequate. Just totally wrong."
Perth archbishop Timothy Costelloe said: "It is a catastrophic failure in many respects but primarily leadership."
All five archbishops indicated to the royal commission that the church had improved its acknowledgement of the harm inflicted on thousands of people who were allegedly abused as children over decades.
Archbishop Fisher told the commission he has made repeated apologies to victims and their families.
"No excuses, no cover-ups, no paedophiles ever again near our churches and schools," he said.
When asked by counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC about the factors which led to the widespread abuse, Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson said ignorance played a part.
"They didn't really understand the nature of sexual abuse of children and the effect it had on the children," he said.
Archbishop Wilson has been charged with concealing child sexual abuse. The abuse was alleged to have been carried out by Father Jim Fletcher during the 1970s in the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese, where Archbishop Wilson was a parish priest. Archbishop Wilson is contesting the charge.
Archbishop Fisher told the inquiry allegations were covered up in the past to protect the church's reputation.
"There was a lack of empathy," he said. "You didn't want scandal, you didn't want causes for people to think less of the clergy or the bishops or the institutions. Things were staring us in the face but ... people wouldn't see it."
Archbishop Hart said bishops "just floated above it ... the awful reality of these crimes didn't make contact with them."
The five archbishops comprised the most senior panel to appear before the inquiry into the high rate of alleged child sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Almost 40 per cent of people attending the commission's private sessions reported sexual abuse in a Catholic institution.
Eileen Piper, a 92-year-old Melbourne woman who has been battling the Catholic church for more than two decades, flew up to the Sydney hearing to speak to Archbishop Hart.
Mrs Piper's daughter Stephanie took her own life in 1994, a year after reporting alleged abuse at the hands of her parish priest when she was a teenager in the 1970s.
Police went on to lay charges against the priest but the case involving Stephanie was dropped after her death. The priest was later convicted of of abusing two of Stephanie's friends.
The Catholic church has refused to accept Stephanie was abused by the priest, with Mrs Piper expressing her anguish outside the commission.
"It's something a mother doesn't recover from when her daughter suicides," she said.
Archbishop Hart sat down with Mrs Piper in a private meeting after the hearing adjourned for the day.
After the meeting, Mrs Piper said: "I am sorry to say that nothing has changed. It isn't over."
The inquiry heard an expert child protection body established by Pope Francis was under-resourced and struggling to work effectively.
Australian member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors Kathleen McCormack told the inquiry the body lacked financial support.
"Our budget would be what you would do in a diocese but we're dealing with the whole world," she said.
New Zealand member Bill Kilgallon told the inquiry: "The way the commission has been structured in terms of the support staff is inadequate."
UK member Baroness Sheila Hollins said the group would raise the issue of under-resourcing with the Pope.
The hearing, before Justice Peter McClellan, continues.
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