Paedophile priest told to pray to end sexual attraction to children, royal commission hears

A notorious paedophile priest who molested dozens of boys raised concerns about his sexual attraction to children before entering the seminary, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing in Newcastle is investigating the Catholic Church's response to widespread paedophilia in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

Much of the probe is focusing on the abuse by paedophile priest Vincent Ryan, who has already served 14 years in jail for abusing boys between 1972 and 1991.

He was released from jail in 2010 and is currently awaiting sentencing on separate child sex offences.

Giving evidence today, Sister Evelyn Woodward was questioned about her knowledge of abuse carried out by Ryan on altar boys and about whom she told in the church hierarchy.

Counsel assisting the commission Stephen Free also probed Sister Evelyn about letters Ryan wrote to her detailing his history of sexual attraction to boys.

Sister Evelyn said that in the letters, which she said she did not receive until after Ryan was admitted to the priesthood, he admitted an early sexual attraction to children.

Mr Free: In one of those letters he actually talked about his sexual attraction to boys for a considerable time and in fact before he entered the seminary, do you remember that?

Sister Evelyn: Yes I do.

Mr Free: The priest had told him, effectively, if he said his prayers, God would look after him?

Sister Evelyn: Yeah.

Ryan entered the seminary at the age of 19 before serving in parishes across the Maitland-Newcastle diocese in the 1970s and 1980s.

When church officials were made aware of his abuse of boys in 1975, he was sent to Melbourne to see a psychiatrist before returning to the Hunter region after completing just one session.

Sister Evelyn told the commission that her view on paedophilia had changed dramatically over the years, after believing it could be "cured" in the 1970s.

"It was a lifelong thing. Nobody much could curb it or cure it," she said.

The hearing is expected to continue this afternoon with the evidence of another abuse survivor, before former Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone is questioned.