A NSW Catholic bishop, whose diocese was the site of child sexual abuse, has questioned why a royal commission focuses on such decades-old crimes.
Bishop Bill Wright, who was appointed head of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in 2011, again offered an apology to people abused by priests at the start of his evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Friday.
But he said he wondered whether a more "contemporary spotlight" was needed when asked about the notion some Catholics did not accept the extent of the focus on the church.
"It sometimes seems that so many of the case studies are delving into matters of 30 and 40 years ago," he told the royal commission in Newcastle.
"I just have this misgiving that there's an awful lot of stuff going on out there now and we spend so much time decades ago."
Royal commission chairman Peter McClellan said it often took survivors a long time to come forward and that 40 per cent of victims who had sought private sessions had been abused in Catholic institutions.
Bishop Wright conceded it was likely now deceased diocese heads lied about what they knew about abuse and said the royal commission was "certainly absolutely right" to look into what went on.
The public hearing has been examining how Catholic authorities dealt with allegations against now-notorious pedophile priest, Father Vincent Ryan.
It has heard vicar capitular Monsignor Patrick Cotter knew of allegations in 1974 but did not send Ryan to a Melbourne psychiatrist until altar boys came forward the following year.
Ryan was allowed to return to the diocese in 1976 and continued to abuse children until his arrest in 1995.
The hearing continues.
