Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop has apologised to church sex abuse victims for what he describes as an unacceptable evil.

In a letter to parishioners, Archbishop Denis Hart said continuing reports of abuse, including the latest investigations in Europe, are causing great distress and shame for the Church.

He offered a sincere and unreserved apology for what he describes as a grave evil.

"This has been one of the saddest times in my 43 years of priesthood," he said.

"I'm determined to work on this issue, to address sexual abuse, to deal with the offenders and to bring care to the victims and I and all the people of Melbourne have a great regard for our good priests who are working so hard in often very difficult circumstances.

"I consider it most important that I write to the people, explain to them how outraged I am and try and give the complete facts so that people can understand the Church is really determined and absolutely resolute to work on this matter."

But Wayne Chamley from the Broken Rites victims support group says individual apologies from bishops do not go far enough.

"We've never seen all of the bishops collectively make a statement," he said.

"And there's been constant revelations of individual bishops covering up the activities of paedophiles. Not a single bishop has ever stepped down.

"They still seem to think that they can get by by going down the road of individual responses by individual claimants with offering some pittance of compensation for people whose total life has often been blighted by their experiences of a paedophile priest."

A Church spokesman says 150,000 copies of the letter have been made.

He says it is up to individual priests whether they read out the letter during mass or leave it to parishioners to collect a copy.