Cardinal George Pell has met Australian victims of paedophile priests overnight and has promised to work with them to combat the "scourge of sexual abuse".
He told the media after the surprise development it had been a "hard, honest and occasionally emotional" meeting with the Ballarat survivor group, who he saw in the Rome hotel where he gave his evidence to the royal commission.
Earlier in the week, the survivors declared they had given up on Cardinal Pell after he told the inquiry he was unaware of the activities of pedophile priests in the Ballarat diocese in the 1970s when he served there.
As well as promising to get Rome's agencies to work with the group, he says he supports looking at setting up a research centre in Ballarat to aid healing and improve child protection.
The 74-year-old Ballarat-born cleric, who is the Vatican's finance chief, said he had heard each of the survivor's stories and their suffering.
David Ridsdale talks to reporters outside of the Quirinale hotel after their meeting with Australian cardinal George Pell Source: AAP
"I know many of their families and I know of the goodness of so many people in Catholic Ballarat, a goodness which is not extinguished by the evil that was done."
Cardinal Pell undertook to work with the survivors' group effectively with the committees and agencies the church had in Rome, including the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
"One suicide is too many ... and there have been many such tragic suicides.
"I commit myself to working with the group that is trying to stop this, so that suicide is not seen as an option for those who are suffering."
Cardinal Pell said he supported work to investigate the feasibility of setting up a research centre in Ballarat to "enhance healing and improve protection".
"It would be marvellous if our city became well known as an effective centre and example of practical health for all those wounded by the scourge of sexual abuse", he told reporters after the meeting.
"I know of the goodness of so many people in Catholic Ballarat, a goodness not extinguished by the evil that was done.
Pyne hopes survivors meet with Pope
A senior federal government minister hopes Ballarat child sexual abuse survivors get an audience with the Pope, after they met with Cardinal George Pell in Rome.
Frontbencher Christopher Pyne has also praised the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, set up by the Gillard Labor government, for putting the suffering of survivors on the national agenda.
He's told the Nine Network he hopes the survivors get a Papal audience.
"This is a very awful part of our society, which we have to face up to, and I think it's good the royal commission has put these issues on the agenda."
Mr Pyne also expressed hope the commission hearings would give survivors some closure on their "terrible experiences".
