Cardinal George Pell may have known about disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale's crimes against children years before he faced charges and may have been involved in decisions to move him between parishes, a royal commission has heard.

Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Gail Furness, SC, described on Tuesday how the College of Consultors - a group of priests who advised the Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns - decided to move Ridsdale between parishes.

Cardinal Pell, who supported Ridsdale at his first court appearance on child sex offences in 1993, was previously a member of the group. Now a Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See in Rome, Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied knowing children were abused in Ballarat when he was there.

Minutes of a Consultors' meeting in September 1982 noted that Bishop Mulkearns "advised that it had become necessary for Father Gerald Ridsdale to move from the Parish of Mortlake."