Ballarat church admits Catholic clergy had head in the sand

The Catholic Church of Victoria has submitted a document titled 'Facing the Truth' to the state parliamentary inquiry into the handling of alleged criminal abuse of children by religious and other organisations.

It says the submission talks about the clergy's commitment to caring for children and acknowledges its past failures.

A submission co-signed by 32 Ballarat victims details a long list of physical and sexual abuse at the hand of the church.

Father Shane Mackinlay of the Ballarat Diocese admits that the church had its "head in the sand" for a long time.

He says there has been a history of resistance to face the truth about "shocking abuse" that happened within the church, both by the clergy and in the wider community.

"We had a very strong clerical culture which made it very difficult both for laypeople, for the families of these victims, for people in our schools, for people in our parishes and certainly for people in leadership and authority to accept that priests and religious [leaders] could do these evil things."

In the submission, the Catholic Church says it commits to fully cooperate with the inquiry and to not "disguising, diminishing or avoiding the actions of those who have betrayed a sacred trust".

The Catholic Church says about 620 cases of criminal child abuse have been upheld by the Church in Victoria over the past 16 years.