Bill Shorten managed to avoid a monster.
Now he wants the needs of survivors of child sexual abuse to be properly addressed.
As a boy, the Labor leader belonged to the same Melbourne parish, Sacred Heart in Oakleigh, where notorious pedophile priest, Fr Kevin O'Donnell, abused 12 children in the 1970s.
Asked about Cardinal George Pell facing the royal commission this week, Mr Shorten said it was a personal issue for him.
"It's very personal," he said.
"One of the terrible cases was a story from Sacred Heart church in Melbourne - that used to be my parish.
"The priest who went to jail, who did terrible things which has caused such tragedy in the lives of some of those families, was my parish priest.
"But through the actions of my mum and others I think I avoided a monster."
Mr Shorten said the church needed to "respond fully".
And many people were calling their MPs to express their disappointment that the government is "not going the full way of the journey with the victims and survivors".
"Nothing less than full redress matters," he said.
"And if Labor is elected we will do our part at a national level working with the institutions, working with the victims and survivors."
