Vulnerable children were in danger of being targeted by paedophile priests because a "paralysis" plagued the Catholic Church's response to abuse allegations for decades, the royal commission has heard.
Appearing before the child abuse royal commission on Monday, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart laid the blame at the feet of top church officials, including former Archbishop Frank Little, but did not criticise his predecessor Cardinal George Pell over his role in the abuse scandal.
Archbishop Hart said there was a "complete failure" of processes within the Melbourne Archdiocese when dealing with child sex abuse complaints, and described allegations referred to Catholic education officials about the Doveton parish as "just a horror story".
"What is now apparent to me is that there was knowledge and a failure to act," he said. "I have just been totally appalled by the extent and the depravity of the offenders and the suffering and ruination of lives of the survivors."
According to Archbishop Hart, the failure stemmed from the office of former Archbishop Frank Little, who headed the Melbourne diocese from 1974 to 1996, and other top church officials including vicars-general Gerald Cudmore, Hilton Deakin and Peter Connors.
But he said it did not include Cardinal George Pell, who was Melbourne archbishop from 1996 to 2001 and was responsible for setting up the Melbourne Response program.
However, Archbishop Hart said he would have expected Cardinal Pell, formerly a regional Bishop, to have had an "adequate degree of knowledge" of what was happening in Doveton, a parish where a succession of paedophile priests were sent over three decades.
"Well, he'd have to explain what he did and didn't know, but there was a complete failure of process. I don't know what he knew and I don't know what he did, so I'd have to say that that would have to be tested."
Cardinal Pell is set to appear before the royal commission later this month.
The royal commission's 35th inquiry is examining the church's handling of sex abuse allegations in Melbourne from the 1980s to 1996, with a focus on eight paedophile priests.
Data produced to the commission shows almost $15 million was paid out to 335 people who made claims for abuse at the hands of 84 priests, mostly suffered at local parishes and schools, between 1980 and 2015.
On Monday, Archbishop Hart said there was a "paralysis" the the archbishop's office, marked by the inaction of his predecessors.
"There was such a respect that only the archbishop could act, that this introduced a paralysis."
He said he believed Archbishop Little, who has been accused of covering up child sex abuse cases and moving paedophile priests between parishes, did not want to have on his conscience any action that would force clergy from the priesthood.
"But he was happy to have it on his conscience that children were abused because he didn't act on these priests?," counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, asked.
"I don't know that that was his intention, but I accept the assertion that you make," Archbishop Hart said.
"It was undoubtedly the outcome, wasn't it?"
"Yes," he said.
Last week the former head of the Catholic Education Office, Monsignor Thomas Doyle, testified that Archbishop Little failed to act on complaints about Doveton parish priest Peter Searson despite receiving written warnings about his increasingly erratic behaviour.
Searson carried a handgun to school and made children kneel between his legs during confession. The church has paid out almost $300,000 to three of Searson's victims, but he died before facing any child abuse charges.
Archbishop Hart accepted that investigations under former Archbishop Little into several priests, including Searson, were not carried out properly. "The archbishop didn't act and this placed children in danger," he said.
Archbishop Hart also said Rome did not respond fast enough to paedophile priests.
Asked if women had been involved in the top levels of church management whether the child abuse crisis would have been allowed to occur, Archbishop Hart said "one or two" diocese in Australia has a woman as chancellor.
"The movement may be glacial, but it is movement," he said.
Archbishop Hart said he had a female director of education after he became archbishop.
Archbishop Hart will continue giving evidence on Tuesday.
