Cardinal George Pell has told the child abuse royal commission that he was deliberately left in the dark about a pedophile priest who made children kneel between his legs for confession and stabbed a bird with a screwdriver in front of students.

Cardinal Pell faced intense questioning on Wednesday as he gave evidence via video link from Rome about how much he knew about paedophile priests dating back to the 1970s.

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC centred attention on Doveton parish priest Peter Searson, who Pell described as 'one of the most unpleasant' men he had ever met.

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Cardinal George Pell told the child abuse royal commission that Doveton parish priest Peter Searson (pictured) as 'one of the most unpleasant' men he had ever met

The church failed to remove him from his position in the 1980s despite mounting evidence that he was abusing children.

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said by 1993 it was notorious among all priests near Searson's parish that he was a serious problem and should not be a priest.

Cardinal Pell said he knew Searson was a serious problem but he did not come to the conclusion that Searson should not be a priest.

'The position I accepted was the official position given to me that we did not have sufficient evidence to remove him,' he said.

Cardinal Pell told the child abuse royal commission he had sought a briefing from the education office after a delegation came to him in 1989, when he was an auxiliary bishop in the Melbourne archdiocese, to complain about Father Searson.

Complaints against Father Searson included keeping a gun at school, showing a body in a coffin to children, sexual contact with children, animal cruelty and holding a knife to a girl's chest.

He was also accused of making children kneel between knees and sit on lap during confession, during which he had a tape recorder.

Cardinal Pell called Searson's behaviour 'abhorrent' but denied knowing about it at the time.

He said he only discovered recently someone had prepared a one-and-a-half page list of infractions by Searson and was never told about the seriousness of the matters involved.

Cardinal George Pell is being questioned about what he knew of pedophile priests operating in Ballarat and Melbourne when he served there in the 1970s and 1980s

Cardinal George Pell arrived at a Rome hotel on Wednesday for his third night of testimony to the child sex abuse royal commission hearing in Sydney

Counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC questions Cardinal George Pell via videolink from Rome

The Cardinal said he was deceived by the Catholic Education Office about the complaints involving Searson because staff did not take him through it in any comprehensive way at all.

'I asked the education office and took their word that they had been dealt with appropriately,' Cardinal Pell said.

There were complaints about Searson's strange behaviour while he was at Sunbury between 1977 and 1984 and many more after he was moved to Doveton, where he remained until 1997.

Cardinal Pell said a 1985 complaint about Searson making children kneel between his legs during confession and recording their confessions should have been investigated.

Ms Furnell presented a letter to the Vicar General that described a complaint of Searson stabbing a bird to death with a screwdriver in front of children.

Cardinal Pell responded by saying: 'I don't know if the bird was already dead.'

Mr Furness asked if it 'would it make a difference?' before Cardinal Pell said: 'Probably not.'

The commission also heard Searson held a knife to a girl's chest in March 1993 and told her 'if you move, this will go through you'.

Ms Furness said it was outrageous that the curia was given that information and did nothing.

'The police had been informed and they investigated and they couldn't proceed,' Cardinal Pell said.

'The recommendation was that nothing could be done. I'm not quite sure what the reasons were.'

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said the church had a responsibility to deal with allegations irrespective of whether police could take action because the parents were not willing to pursue the matter.

'Whatever the position of the parents, that doesn't relieve the church of the obligation to deal with priests who are incapable of acting appropriately with children in their parishes does it?'

Cardinal Pell told the child abuse royal commission he had sought a briefing from the Catholic Education Office after a delegation came to him in 1989 to complain about Father Searson

Plain-clothes state police officers kept journalists back as the cardinal walked the few steps to the hotel door, refusing to answer questions about the hearing

Cardinal Pell replied: 'That does not relieve the church of such an obligation but it is a factor of how you can go forward effectively.'

Justice McClellan said the curia advising the archbishop also had a responsibility to ensure the safety of children.

Cardinal Pell agreed but he could not remember what was said at the curia meetings to justify inaction.

Cardinal Pell had earlier said it was 'extraordinary' that former Melbourne Archbishop Frank Little did not launch an official investigation about the allegations relating to Searson.