"Between January 1980 and February 2015, 4,444 alleged incidents of child sexual abuse [were] made to 93 Catholic Church authorities," Gail Furness SC said in her opening address to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. "These claims related to over 1,000 separate institutions."

Analysis has shown that 7% of Australia’s Catholic priests abused children in the six decades since 1950, Furness said.

"Of priests from the 75 Catholic Church authorities with priest members surveyed, and who ministered in Australia in that period, 7.9% of diocesan priests were alleged perpetrators and 5.7% of religious priests were alleged perpetrators," she said.