A former Catholic school teacher who says she saw priests grooming students in her classroom has told an inquiry that Victoria's child protection system is failing victims of clergy sexual assault.
In her statement read to the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry on Tuesday, Pam Krstic said she was ignored when she raised her concerns.
While the inquiry is not investigating individual cases, it was told that secrecy within church communities and their "don't talk about it" attitude as well as society's reluctance to talk about sexual abuse, were systemic issues that needed to be addressed.
"We believe the church response (to abuse) is shockingly deficient in preventing and minimising trauma for victims, their families and communities at a great cost to us all," Ms Krstic said.
She said there was reluctance among police, professionals and politicians to engage in any public criticism of the Catholic church's handling of clergy abuse.
Ms Krstic co-founded the Melbourne Victims' Collective for those affected by abuse after two priests in her St Brigid's Parish in Healesville were convicted over child sex abuse within a decade.
She said Catholic schools and the church were not subject to the same legal requirements that applied to others who work with children, and clergy need to be legislated as mandatory reporters of child abuse.
"Teachers and clergy who see more vulnerable children on a daily basis than welfare workers should be required to be supervised the way those working in the welfare sector are," she said.
Victims' Collective director Helen Last said the Catholic church withheld information from police and there was no pressure from government for them to do otherwise.
"An institution like a church is free to do what it wants to do," Ms Last told the inquiry.
"We see that there is a complicity here, a systemic complicity and we are trying to argue that very strongly because when you have that amount of material being held by a private organisation or an institution, that is of great concern to the wider society."
She was critical of the Melbourne Response, a process adopted by the Catholic church by which victims of clergy abuse can seek compensation from the church of up to $75,000 rather than go to police.
She said it was problematic because victims usually did not seek legal advice before signing legal documents which released the church and the offending priest.
She said the collective had requested the Victorian government evaluate the need for an independent commission of inquiry into the process.
"We don't believe it has protected children, the church has not protected children in the past, it's not protecting them in the current situation, so therefore we can't have hope for the future situation," she said.
The inquiry, launched in January, is investigating systemic problems in the state's child protection system.
The panel, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Philip Cummins, is scheduled to report its recommendations to improve the system to government in November.
The inquiry was ordered by the government following the airing of horrific cases of child abuse in various Ombudsman's reports and critical problems recruiting and retaining child protection workers.
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