Four officials testified earlier this week at Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

When Cardinal Pell came to Melbourne as an auxiliary bishop in 1987, Fr Peter Searson was terrifying children at the parish of Doveton.

Fr Searson, who died in 2009, killed a bird in front of children, showed them a dead body in a coffin, held a gun to the heads of parishioners, threatened to stab a child and repeatedly molested youngsters during Confession.

Melbourne's Catholic Education Office took complaints to then-Archbishop of Melbourne, Archbishop Frank Little, but nothing was done.

Then-Bishop Pell reportedly received a delegation of teachers complaining about Fr Searson in 1989 and another of parents in 1991.

Fr Searson was eventually suspended in 1997, a year after Cardinal Pell became archbishop.

This came after the priest bashed an altar boy whose parents went to police.

Earlier this year, Cardinal Pell told the royal commission that when he was auxiliary bishop, staff from the CEO didn't give him a full account of allegations about Fr Searson.

The cardinal said the office had given him "no adequate background briefing on the long-term problems at all".

The cardinal said he believed CEO staff deceived him because they feared he "would not accept the status quo".

He said this was done to protect the office and Archbishop Little.

Former deputy director of the Catholic Education Office Peter Annett testified that he was shocked, disappointed and angry that the cardinal had referred to inaction by the CEO.

Msgr Thomas Doyle, former executive director of the Catholic Education Office, told the commission Cardinal Pell's evidence that he was deceived by education office staff was wrong.

Contrary to Cardinal Pell's claim, Msgr Doyle said the CEO would have welcomed his assistance in removing the priest.

But a former principal at the Catholic school in Doveton, Graeme Sleeman, strongly rejected the claim that dealing with Fr Searson was the top priority of the Catholic Education Office.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• The Guardian
• Image: The Telegraph

He said the Church was working to improve its processes to help whistleblowers.

"I always think there's room for improvement," he said.

"I do think that one of the things that we want to do together as a community and Church is really to identify how we can do things better."

Archbishop Hart acknowledged that the Church was too slow to act in the past when dealing with paedophile priests.

He admitted that in one case the Church took 18 years to de-frock a priest, but it was "better late than never".

He said the Church was restricted by the fact that the law had to be changed and by the priest being in prison.

Archbishop Hart also admitted that one of his predecessors, Archbishop Sir Frank Little, had covered up abuse reports.

"Archbishop Little kept all these things to himself and there were no records," Archbishop Hart said.

Pressed on whether there had been a cover-up, he said: "Well I have to agree with that."

He added: "The only person who's ultimately responsible is the archbishop at the time.

"We were too slow to realise what was going on. These awful criminals are secretive and cunning."

He said he believed Archbishop Little simply couldn't believe a priest could do such a thing.

Archbishop Hart admitted that the Church had been too keen to look after itself when instructing that complaints remain confidential.

"The question of confidentiality of these matters was probably kept in one sense too much in that the Church was too keen to look after herself and her good name and not keen enough to address the terrible anguish of the victims," he said.

Questioned about compensation for victims, Archbishop Hart said he believed the payments the Church made were generous when compared with what the state paid.

Sources:

ABC News

Sydney Morning Herald

The Australian

Image: ABC News