The archbishops have fronted the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse-- with the public hearings expected to conclude tomorrow.
In a joint appearance before the commission, the Archbishops of Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide gave their explanations for the failure to protect people from abuse.
The Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe gave this response.
"Scandalously insufficient, hopelessly inadequate, scandalously inefficient, I'm struggling for others words, it's just such a fundamental failure that I'm not sure what else I could say."
Archbishop Costelloe says he's written letters of apology.
"What I have done, generally speaking, is, what we would call pastoral letters, letters to the people, the Catholic community of the Archdiocese of Perth. I've tried to address these matters on probably four or five occasions in the five years that I've been there. And I have included in those, what I would, I know to be a very sincere apology. I hope that it's been understood that way."
This assessment from Sydney's Archbishop Anthony Fisher saw some in the public gallery applaud his choice of words.
"There was a kind of criminal negligence to do with some of the problems that were staring us in the face (applause). In other cases, I think there were people who were just like rabbits in the headlights they just had no idea what to do and their performance was appalling."
Brisbane's Archbishop Mark Coleridge told the hearing the culture in the church contributed to the negative outcomes.
"You had leaders who were in themselves decent, good and experience men but who in very different places and different times made exactly the same mistakes without comparing notes, or even talking to each other about it informally. Now where you find those kinds of convergences, I think that's when you're dealing with culture. So if it was as I think it is, a colossal failure of leadership. It did amount and I think this has emerged through the process of the royal commission in important ways as a colossal failure of culture that led to the colossal failure of leadership."
The commission has heard many of the victims have suffered lifelong trauma, often resorting to substance abuse to try to cope.
And some died prematurely, including Eileen Piper's daughter Stephanie who committed suicide in 1994 after being abused by a Catholic priest.
92 year old Ms Piper made the trip from Melbourne to Sydney with the hope of confronting Melbourne's Archbishop Denis Hart to demand an apology.
"It's something a mother really doesn't recover from when her daughter suicides. We aren't strong enough to represent her here today and for all other victims who suffered just like she did and still trying to get an apology."
