A Victorian bishop who spoke favourably at an accused pedophile priest's funeral now says he was in an difficult and awkward position.
Fr Nazareno Fasciale was given a funeral with full religious honours when he died of cancer in 1996 while awaiting trial for child sex abuse.
Bishop Peter Connors said he felt he was in a difficult position after then Melbourne archbishop Frank Little asked him to officiate at the funeral mass.
"I did not feel that I could make any statement about the allegations of abuse at his funeral or express sorrow to victims, when the matter had not gone to court," Bishop Connors said in a statement to the child abuse royal commission.
Bishop Connors, then an auxiliary bishop in the Melbourne archdiocese, said he was careful to ensure the homily referred to Fasciale's failings and the fact that he too was a sinner.
"Looking back at my homily today, I can understand why people might think I should have been more explicit and made more of a reference to the people Fr Fasciale had hurt," he said.
"However I felt I was in an awkward position since he had died before any trial, and I was conscious of the feelings of his family and the Italian community in the region."
Twenty people have made a child sex abuse claim against Fasciale to the church, covering 1953 - one year after his ordination - to 1985. Three claims were made before his death.
The claims all went through the archdiocese's Melbourne Response scheme, with the church paying $753,000 in compensation to 19 claimants.
Bishop Connors told the inquiry on Friday the archdiocese's response to complaints about another pedophile priest, Fr Peter Searson, was very amateurish and left a lot of people hurt. He will give evidence again later next week.
One of Searson's victims, former altar boy BVC, told the inquiry he has tried to block out the five years of abuse by the Doveton parish priest from 1992.
"Often, when Fr Searson had finished, he would give me a box of candy or something. I remember now that at the time I just felt trapped," he said.
