He also acknowledged that senior figures in the Australian Catholic Church covered up evidence about child abuse.

Appearing before the Victorian inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse, Cardinal Pell said the Catholic Church's history of child abuse stems from loose entry requirements for priests, past errors of judgment and inaction.

Australia's most senior Catholic admitted that the fear of scandal had led to the cover-up of instances of abuse by some within the church but he denied that there was a culture of abuse among priests.

He said his predecessor as Archbishop of Melbourne, Sir Frank Little, was involved in a cover-up and he said that a former Ballarat archbishop had destroyed documents.

He denied he personally covered up offending and he said he was ''fully apologetic and absolutely sorry'' for abuse by clergy.

He agreed under questioning that the fear of scandal led to a cover-up.

''The primary motivation would have been to respect the reputation of the church,'' he said. ''There was a fear of scandal.''

Answering a question on the high rate of reports of child sex abuse, he said the Catholic Church dealt with an enormous number of children.

He said celibacy might be a factor in some cases.

''As we all know paedophilia is acted out in institutional settings by married people so marriage is not necessarily a deterrent to paedophilia. I also think the entry procedures … for candidates in the middle of last century was much too loose.''

Cardinal Pell said that while the church had in the past been reluctant to act to prevent public scandal, ''intermittent hostility from the press'' had encouraged the church to act on abuse allegations.

''We deal with an enormous number of children, probably more than others put together - 140,000 students.''

Many of his responses about his personal empathy for victims were met with laughter and scoffs from the public gallery, which included victims and victims' advocates.

Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney and a former archbishop of Melbourne, has apologised for the abuse committed by clergy.

''I'm fully apologetic and absolutely sorry,'' he said. ''That is the basis for everything which I'll say now.''

He said the church had dealt with child sex abuse ''imperfectly'' and had not understood the damage being done to victims.

He said the sodomy of children was always regarded as totally reprehensible.

''If we'd been gossips, which we weren't … we would have realised earlier just how widespread this business was,'' Cardinal Pell said.

He admitted that lives had been ruined as a result of the cover-ups and that they had allowed pedophile priests to prey on children.

''I would have to say there is significant truth in that,'' Cardinal Pell said. He said he did not believe there had been a culture of abuse.

''I think the bigger fault was that nobody would talk about it, nobody would mention it. I was certainly unaware of it. I don't think many, if any, persons in the leadership of the Catholic Church knew what a horrendous widespread mess we were sitting on.''

Cardinal Pell agreed that placing paedophiles above the law and moving them to other parishes resulted in more heinous crimes being committed.

''There's no doubt about it that lives have been blighted. There's no about it that these crimes have contributed to too many suicides.''

Cardinal Pell said he had discovered ''in the last few weeks'' former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns had destroyed documents.

The inquiry has heard that Bishop Mulkearns was aware of child abuse accusations against pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale but simply moved him to a different parish. ''His actions were followed by disastrous consequences,'' Cardinal Pell said.

Cardinal Pell admitted that the Catholic Church had recognised paedophilia was a problem in Australia as early as 1988.

Cardinal Pell said Australian compensation for abuse victims - a maximum of $75,000 - was low compared to the US but compared favourably with the vast majority of the world.

AAP, with smh.com.au