Pell first to act on abuse: Abbott

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Cardinal George Pell does bear some responsibility for the errors of the Catholic Church, but in the same breath defended the senior Catholic's response to child sex abuse.

A landmark Victorian report savaged the church's handling of abuse allegations and said Cardinal Pell had shown a reluctance to acknowledge and accept responsibility for its institutional failures.

Mr Abbott, who has not read the report, said the Catholic Church was not the only institution that didn't handle the issue well and Cardinal Pell had been the first senior cleric to act on allegations.

"I understand that these things probably did happen but I suspect it wasn't just the church that didn't handle these things well," Mr Abbott told Fairfax Radio.

He said Cardinal Pell was not perfect but he was a "fine human being" and a "great churchman".

"I have a lot of time for George Pell. Does that mean that he's perfect? No. Does that mean that he doesn't bear some responsibility for the errors of the church? Of course not," Mr Abbott said.

"He has, by repute, been the first senior cleric in Australia to take this issue seriously."

The 800-page parliamentary report on institutional abuse responses said Cardinal Pell's evidence revealed "a reluctance to acknowledge and accept responsibility for the Catholic Church's institutional failure to respond appropriately to allegations of criminal child abuse".

It was also scathing of the Catholic Church's leadership prior to the 1990s, giving specific examples in which former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns and former Melbourne Archbishop Frank Little moved known sexual offenders between parishes without reporting them to police.

Mr Abbott said the issue could have and should have been handled better but he didn't know about cover-ups.

"I just don't know for a personal fact what was done," he said.

"I absolutely know that it wasn't handled well."