TWO Catholic orders have denied colluding to protect pedophile members of the clergy, but say they accept some responsibility for the crimes committed.
One in four St John of God brothers and 14 priests of the Salesian order have been the subject of child abuse complaints in Victoria, a state parliamentary inquiry heard on Monday.
More than 100 abuse cases have been upheld in the Catholic Church's Ballarat diocese alone since 1975. More than 60 per cent of them involved one offender, the defrocked priest Gerald Ridsdale - who has been convicted.
The bishop now in charge of Ballarat has admitted a predecessor made a "terrible mistake" in letting Ridsdale - one of Australia's worst pedophiles - remain in the ministry after being alerted to a complaint as long ago as 1975.
"From my reading of the accounts it wasn't wilful blindness. It was a tragic mistake on his part," Bishop Paul Bird said.
St John of God and the Salesians both say they are yet to conduct overall investigations into sexual abuse in their orders, but they deny any cover-up.
Rosanna Harris, chair of provinces professional standards committee at St John of God, denied the organisation had been targeted by pedophiles.
"There is no suggestion there were rings of pedophiles or there was collusion between brothers," she told the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations.
Salesians provincial Father Greg Chambers said he had been made aware of possible communication between as many as three offenders, but didn't believe there had been any collusion.
"There may have been some communication between those individuals," he said.
He denied any conspiracy.
"I wouldn't call it that," he said.
St John of God provincial Brother Tim Graham said he didn't think it was possible there had been a cover-up.
He said the organisation had been stripped to the bone by media investigations and had also provided every bit of information it had to the inquiry.
Asked if the order had created, harboured or colluded with pedophiles, Brother Graham said, "I don't accept that."
Complaints were made against 15 of a total of about 60 Victorian St John of God brothers, a figure Ms Harris and Brother Graham conceded was extraordinarily high.
"Very vulnerable children in our care were damaged and for that we have apologised and we continue to do so," Mr Harris said.
"We are horrified."
Ms Harris said the brothers who offended had operated independently.
"So far we have found that there have been various offenders working independently over a number of years," Ms Harris said.
"As to the reasons why, we haven't explored that yet."
The inquiry was told that 49 complaints had been made against 14 priests of the Salesian order.
The order had paid out more than $2.06 million in compensation over 37 of those complaints.
Fr Chambers said the order had to accept that it had failed to properly vet, train and supervise its members.
"Our religious society must have some responsibility for the failures," he said.
Would-be priests were now made aware of their responsibilities and were psychologically tested, Fr Chambers said.
Five Salesian priests have been convicted of criminal offences, but no St John of God brothers have been charged, despite police investigations.
Other Catholic organisations will give evidence to the inquiry this week.
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