Survivors of child sexual abuse at the hands of paedophile priests have held what's been described as an emotional meeting with Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, in Rome.
The meeting comes after the Cardinal spent four days testifying before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via video link.
Both the survivors and the Cardinal say they are now looking to the future, trying to find ways to stop the enduring problem of survivor suicide.
After four days of watching lawyers ask the questions, survivors of child sexual abuse have had a chance to talk directly with Cardinal George Pell.
For nearly two hours, the Cardinal met privately with around a dozen survivors, relatives and supporters from the Ballarat area who had flown to Rome for the hearings.
Survivor David Ridsdale says the meeting was held on good terms.
"What we want to say is we've just had an extremely emotional meeting with Cardinal Pell. We met on a level playing field.* We met as people from Ballarat."
Cardinal Pell says he wants to help the survivors work with Church institutions in Rome like the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
When he emerged from the meeting, the Cardinal read a statement he had written by hand on hotel notepaper.
"It was hard -- an honest and occasionally emotional meeting. I'm committed to working with these people from Ballarat and the surrounding areas. I know many of their families, and I know the goodness of so many people in Catholic Ballarat, a goodness which is not extinguished by the evil that was done."
Both the survivors and the Cardinal say they are looking to the future.
One pressing question is how to curb high suicide rates among those who experienced sexual abuse as children.
Survivors have previously said the suicide rate in Ballarat is higher than the road toll.
Philip Nagle told the royal commission last year one third of his former classmates had taken their own lives.
It has been revealed that, at one point in the 1970s at Mr Nagle's primary school, Saint Alipius, every male teacher and the school chaplain were molesting children.
Cardinal Pell says he will do what he can to help.
"One suicide is too many ... Too many. And there have been many such tragic suicides. I commit myself to working with the group to strive to stop this, so that suicide is not seen as an option for those who are suffering."
It is an issue close to the heart for Anthony Foster, the father of two girls molested by the same priest.
One went on to take her own life.
Outside the Hotel Quirinale, where the meeting with the Cardinal took place, Mr Foster held up an old photograph of his daughters.
"This was my perfect family. And this is the perfect family the Catholic church destroyed through not monitoring its priests."
Meanwhile, in Australia, the royal commission's work is far from over.
Attention has shifted to the grooming and sexual abuse of children at two performing arts centres in Sydney, the Australian Institute of Music and the RG Dance studio.
Up to 23 witnesses are expected to provide evidence in the coming days.
