Cardinal George Pell says he regrets his choice of words when he described offending by pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale as a sad story that "wasn't of much interest" to him.
On Thursday, his fourth day of evidence by videolink from Rome to the child abuse royal commission, Cardinal Pell said he always felt sorry for Ridsdale's nephew David who was abused by his uncle.
When he was reminded by counsel for David Ridsdale that he had told the commission on Tuesday that he had "no reason to turn my mind to the extent of the evils that Ridsdale had perpetrated", the cardinal said he could not remember saying that.
He asked the context be explained and when it was said he had "messed up" the time sequence completely.
"I regret the choice of words. I was very confused, I responded poorly," Cardinal Pell said.
"Just previous to this exchange we were talking about `93, '94. Then it swung over to the incidents in '74, '75. It was badly expressed."
He said in 1993 he was a Melbourne official considering something that happened in Inglewood.
"I have never enjoyed reading the accounts of these sufferings and I tried to do that only when it was professionally and absolutely appropriate because the behaviour's abhorrent and painful to read about."
He said it was "completely untrue" that he didn't have much interest in what David Ridsdale told him about the crimes of his uncle.
Cardinal Pell said David Ridsdale had never claimed he denied his primary interest at the time was protecting the church.
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