The inquiry into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in the Hunter has been told bishops believed paedophile priests could be cured with spiritual forgiveness.
Monsignor John Usher has given evidence at the inquiry in Sydney and says 20 years ago the first response from senior clergy to claims of paedophilia was disbelief.
It was widely believed priests could not commit sexual abuse and where they did, it was regarded as a one-off incident which could be cured with counselling.
