Even Gerald Ridsdale says he should never have been a priest.
The 81-year-old says he's sorry "so many others" could have been saved had Catholic Church figures who knew he was abusing children gone to police.
Two Ballarat bishops knew of Ridsdale's crimes, one as early as 1961, and two Sydney archbishops knew he had "sexual problems" and should be kept away from children, an inquiry has heard.
Ridsdale was moved between numerous Victorian parishes before being sent to a desk job in Sydney, a move senior counsel assisting the royal commission Gail Furness SC said was designed to get him away from parishes and access to children.
Documents before the child sex abuse royal commission show Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns first agreed on conditions for Ridsdale's transfer with the Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal Sir James Freeman.
Bishop Mulkearns told Cardinal Freeman's successor Edward Clancy in 1983 Ridsdale was receiving counselling for "certain sexual problems" and had come to Sydney to get away from problems in Victoria.
Ridsdale abused children while he worked at the Catholic Enquiry Centre in Sydney, telling the commission he cannot recall being told to have no contact with them.
"If it was, I can't remember it," Ridsdale said.
Cardinal Clancy later received a letter of complaint about Ridsdale, the documents show.
Commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan said it was incredible Ridsdale could not remember his discussions with Bishop Mulkearns about being moved from the Victorian parish of Mortlake to Sydney in 1982.
"My answer is, I can only give you what I've got," Ridsdale said.
"I can only tell you what I remember."
Ridsdale said there was no doubt that in his discussions with Bishop Mulkearns about his sexual offending, both knew he was committing crimes.
But the bishop never indicated he would go to the police, nor did anyone else in the church, he said.
Did he accept that someone with his issues should never have been a priest? "Yes, I accept that now," Ridsdale said.
"There should have been a better screening process that was much more thorough, psychological process that was much more thorough than anything that was conducted then."
Ridsdale said he accepted the church should have ended his life as a priest once his problems were recognised.
He knows he would have been defrocked and jailed had the bishop he first discussed his offending with gone to police.
"It would have, and I am now sorry that it didn't; that it didn't happen," Ridsdale said.
"It would have saved so many others."
Ridsdale said he did not tell then-Father Pell that he was abusing children while they and a third priest lived in the Ballarat East presbytery in the early 1970s.
A judge last year said a girl believed another priest was present for a short time while Ridsdale was sexually assaulting her and must have been aware of the assault but did not intervene.
Ms Furness on Thursday asked Ridsdale who that priest was.
"I don't know because I've said I don't know who the other priests were there at the same time except George Pell," Ridsdale said.
The commission has heard the first complaint against Ridsdale was in the year after he was ordained in 1961, with then Ballarat Bishop James O'Collins telling him if it happened again he would be dismissed from the priesthood.
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