Church committed to avoiding abuse: Pell

A tired George Pell says his appearance before the child abuse royal commission has been a "hard slog" and he hopes it will contribute to healing, but survivors doubt the honesty of his evidence.

"All the leadership of the church in Australia is committed to avoiding any repetition of the terrible history of the past and to try to make things better," Cardinal Pell told reporters early on Thursday at the conclusion of his evidence given from a Rome hotel.

As the Vatican's chief finance officer, he's considered the third most powerful person in the Catholic Church, but says his appearance before the commission and the global media attention has not hurt his reputation in the Vatican.

"I don't think it hurts it at all and actually this event might do a little bit of good in Europe," he said.

Earlier in the week the cardinal said he had the full backing of the Pope.

But abuse survivors who travelled to Rome to see him testify were not impressed with his evidence.

"The Ballarat survivors came to Rome to hear truth and honesty from George. We feel we have been deceived and lied to," survivor Philip Nagle said.

"We feel George has not been honest nor truthful. George will have to live with this chosen course."

The 74-year-old has endured four days of tough questioning over his knowledge of pedophile priests in the Ballarat and Melbourne dioceses in the 1970s and 1980s and whether he was involved in covering up such offending when he served there.

While Cardinal Pell admitted hearing rumours and talk about Christian Brothers and priests abusing boys and even suspected one brother of pedophilic activity, he said he had no authority to do anything about them.

He told the commission he had been deceived by the former bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns and former Melbourne Archbishop Frank Little as well as Catholic Education Office officials who he said all withheld details of allegations from him.

His claims that he was unaware of abuse angered victims, while counsel assisting the commission labelled some of his evidence "completely implausible".

Cardinal Pell said it had been "a hard slog" but the royal commission process was designed to make the situation better for survivors in the future and prevent further abuse.

"I hope that my appearance here has contributed a bit to healing, to improving the situation."

He said the most difficult part for him was reading the transcripts of the way the victims suffered.

He said he was born in Ballarat and is very proud of his Ballarat connections.

"I grieve for the suffering of the people who I regard as my own people."

The cardinal said he would meet with Ballarat survivors later on Thursday "and please God that will take us a little bit forward".