Gerald Francis Ridsdale says he did not tell anyone he had abused children when he was first ordained because he was afraid of being kicked out of the priesthood.
Ridsdale has told the child abuse royal commission that he did not confess all his sins during confession once he left the seminary, and told no one he was abusing children when he was ordained in 1961.
"I didn't confess the sexual offending against children," Ridsdale told the commission's Ballarat hearing, via videolink from jail.
He did not tell the Ballarat bishop who ordained him that he had offended while in the seminary studying to be a priest and while overseas.
"I don't think I told, would have told anyone at all," Ridsdale said.
"I never told anyone. It's the sort of thing I wouldn't tell anyone.
"Looking back on it, I think that the overriding fear would have been losing priesthood."
"I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking."
The parents of a boy Ridsdale abused in his first year after being ordained as a priest in 1961 complained to then Ballarat Bishop James O'Collins.
Ridsdale told a Catholic Church Insurances investigator in 1994 that Bishop O'Collins told him "if this thing happens again then you're off to the missions".
Ridsdale on Wednesday said that would have meant he would lose his priesthood or be removed from parish work.
"I would have lost faith in myself because I was a very proud person. It just would have been devastating."
Ridsdale said he had never talked about his offending to anyone apart from during legal matters or in counselling.
"Through my life, as far as I know, I've spoken to no one except in legal matters or in counselling, but as far as friends or family or fellow priests, I had never talked to anyone."
"As far as I know I've never talked to anyone, and certainly not in confession either, about offending against children," Ridsdale said.
Ridsdale told the commission that a priest should go against the teachings of the church and tell police if someone confesses to a crime during confession.
"I think in the days when I was sort of working as a priest, everything told in confession was to be kept secret, private.
"Well, now from my experience and what I've done and the damage that I've done, I'd say yes, definitely yes.
"I don't know what the church ruling or legislation or thought is about that, but that's my personal opinion."
Ridsdale told lawyers for the Catholic Church's investigators in 1994, after his first conviction for abusing children, that a Christian Brother touched him when he was 11 or 12.
The 81-year-old has told the royal commission that he has no recollection of that or two separate incidents of a separate nature involving relatives but accepts it did happen.
"I've got no clear picture of those now."
Ridsdale has been convicted in four separate court cases of abusing more than 50 children.
Ridsdale said he knew he was committing crimes against children.
"Yes, they were serious sins," he said.
"I'd be fearful all the time of someone reporting me."
Ridsdale then explained how he kept it a secret.
"I would have made sure that I was in a situation where there was no one else around and I would have told the children to keep quiet about it."
He admitted he hurt the children.
"Yes I did, I know that."
