The Christian Brothers underpaid almost 170 sexual abuse claimants millions of dollars because they believed they were "going to be taken to the cleaners", a royal commission has heard.
An inquiry into Catholic church authorities heard the order was asked to re-examine 201 compensation settlements to victims of child sexual abuse in 2014 and found 165 were too low.
An additional $14 million was paid to the claimants, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.
Province leader of the Christian Brothers Peter Clinch told the inquiry the inadequate initial settlements were due to defensiveness.
"There may have been elements of denial and we thought we were going to be taken to the cleaners - which we could still - but it was a kind of defensiveness, a reluctance to come and speak to the legal people," he said.
Brother Clinch told the commission the order covers the legal costs of brothers accused of sexual abuse on a "case by case" basis.
The Christian Brothers have spent $1.53 million on defending one of Australia's worst paedophiles, Robert Charles Best, who pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria on Monday to the sexual abuse of 20 children.
Data released by the royal commission shows 301 Christian Brothers, who ministered between 1950 and 2010, were alleged to have molested children.
The order has paid $48.5 million to 763 claimants between 1980 and 2015.
"I'm appalled, shamed, humbled," Brother Clinch said of the findings. "I deeply regret it and it challenges our brothers to the core."
The 12th day of the inquiry heard evidence from the leaders of seven Catholic orders, five of which had the highest proportion of alleged perpetrators.
According to the royal commission's analysis, the highest proportion of alleged offenders were in the St John of God Brothers (40pc), followed by the Christian Brothers (22pc), the Salesians of Don Bosco (21.9pc), the Marist Brothers (20.4pc) and the De La Salle Brothers (13.8pc).
Marist Brothers schools, including St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, Parramatta Marist High, Marist College Canberra and Marist Brothers Hamilton, were among the institutions with the highest number of claims, according to the report.
Brother Peter Carroll, Marist Brothers Australian provincial, told the hearing he was unsure why those institutions had attracted clusters of perpetrators.
"(It) could have been the whole lack of voice given to young people, so that complaints were not brought forward by them. They weren't believed in some cases," he said. "There could have been a very rigid control mechanism that was part of the culture of those schools."
The Marist Brothers paid $31 million to 286 child sexual abuse claimants between 1980 and 2015.
Brother Carroll told the hearing the Marist Brothers also pay legal fees for accused brothers on a case by case basis.
Each of the orders indicated they would co-operate with the Federal government's multi-billion dollar redress scheme to begin next year.
The hearing, before Justice Peter McClellan, continues.
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