Cardinal George Pell has called on the federal government to set up an independent body to recommend what damages should be paid to victims of child abuse, as he gave evidence to the child sexual abuse royal commission.
He reiterated his belief that the Catholic Church should create a corporate legal entity that could be sued by victims and said abusive priests should be insured against being sued for sexual abuse.
Under questioning from royal commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan, Cardinal Pell said both the church's Towards Healing protocol for dealing with sex abuse victims and the Melbourne Response that he set up in the 1990s failed to meet the church's moral responsibility towards victims.
He said the attitude of some people in the Vatican in the 1990s was that accusations against priests ''were being made exclusively or at least predominantly by enemies of the church to make trouble".
Cardinal Pell admitted to multiple failings in his handling of the case of John Ellis, who was a 13-year-old altar boy when Father Aidan Duggan of Bass Hill parish started sexually abusing him.
But the cardinal said those closest to him - the Archdiocesan chancellor, his private secretary and the director of the Office of Professional Standards which handled Towards Healing complaints - erred in their evidence that he was consulted about reparation payments to be made to victims.
The evidence is that Mr Ellis said in 2004 he would settle for $100,000, but this offer was rejected. The church counter-offered with $25,000, increased to $30,000 after Mr Ellis lost his job as a partner with leading law firm Baker and McKenzie. The church ultimately spent $1.5 million on the case.
Cardinal Pell said in his statement that he ''explicitly endorsed the major strategies of the defence'' in the litigation that the commission has heard left Mr Ellis a broken man.
But his statement says he had not been aware that his lawyers told the court that Mr Ellis had no one to sue other than the Archdiocesan trustees or himself - the basis of the now infamous ''Ellis defence''.
Cardinal Pell said the amounts offered by the church to Mr Ellis were grotesque and inappropriate, and he made a mistake in not continuing with mediation.
He insisted he had not known about Mr Ellis' $100,000 offer, which would have in been an ''excellent outcome'' in hindsight.
Senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, put it to the cardinal that it was inconceivable that he was not involved in the decision to reject the $100,000 given he agreed he had been closely involved in almost every significant step in handling the case until then.
Cardinal Pell replied: ''Once again it is not a question of what is conceivable or logical or possible. The fact is that I was not informed about any of this''.
Justice McClellan asked whether Cardinal Pell's concern for victims ''didn't extend to knowing whether monetary compensation (was) … adequate to victims' needs?''
He said he was ''not a micro-manager'' and trusted others to do their jobs. But he later said he appointed the man who should have told him about the $100,000, Vicar-general Monsignor Brian Rayner, to a role was ''completely beyond him''.
He also blamed John Davoren, director of the NSW-ACT Professional Standards Office, for inaccurately assessing Mr Ellis' case initially. Mr Davoren was a ''muddler'', he said. But he agreed he made no attempt to remove Mr Davoren from his position.
The cardinal expressed concern that the church was held to a higher standard of accountability for sex abuse than other institutions or individuals.
He said there were ''exact parallels'' with sporting groups, rugby league clubs, the scouts and other institutions.
''We have a right to be treated just like any other Australian community'', he said.
Cardinal Pell's evidence continues on Wednesday.
