Cardinal George Pell insists he only tried to help the victims of a Victorian pedophile priest, and has apologised for their suffering.
Christine and Anthony Foster won a $750,000 settlement from the Melbourne archdiocese after two of their daughters were raped by notorious abuser Father Kevin O'Donnell.
Mr Foster said Cardinal Pell showed a "sociopathic lack of empathy" when they met to discuss the case in the 1990s.
In his statement to the child abuse royal commission, Cardinal Pell said he had not tried to insult the Fosters.
"I am sorry for anything I did to upset them at this meeting," he said.
"It was certainly not my intention to upset them. I wanted to help them."
Cardinal Pell said the Fosters had suffered terribly.
"I regret deeply that I have been unable to bring them even a small amount of healing," he said.
Church lawyer Richard Leder told the commission that Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart had "strongly held views that every effort should be made to settle" the Fosters' case.
He said the church could have argued it could not be legally sued, but Archbishop Hart did not want to go down that route.
"While that would be a legal victory, that would not be a victory that the archbishop would have enjoyed," Mr Leder said.
His answer drew jeers from the public gallery.
Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said that approach was different to how Cardinal Pell had argued a similar case in NSW, using the "Ellis defence".
John Ellis was abused while an altar boy but lost his compensation court case because the church successfully argued it was not a legal entity.
Cardinal Pell told the royal commission earlier in the year he now believes the church should create a legal entity that could be sued.
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