The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, has revealed he knew two altar boys he is alleged to have assaulted sexually on Phillip Island more than 40 years ago.
Dr Pell has also named a fellow seminarian at the 1961 island camp who, as a priest, aged 60, faced charges of indecent assault on two boys, aged 10 and 11.
He has provided the details in a statement to a secret commission of inquiry that starts in Melbourne on Monday into allegations that he sexually assaulted the altar boys at the Smiths Beach camp in 1961.
Dr Pell reveals in the statement the existence of a photograph that might show the complainant sitting on his shoulders, while the other alleged abuse victim is at his feet.
In the statement he submitted on Wednesday to the inquiry under former Supreme Court judge Alec Southwell, Dr Pell denies emphatically the allegations that he abused the altar boys
He details activities at the camps for altar boys, which he is believed to have attended in 1961, 1962 and 1963. About 120 boys from throughout the archdiocese are believed to have attended the camps over the years.
Dr Pell was a student priest aged about 20 at the time of the alleged abuse. The boys were about 11.
The archbishop recalls in the statement that the current Archbishop of the Melbourne archdiocese, Denis Hart, was at one of the camps in 1962 - a year after the alleged abuse - when Archbishop Hart was a student priest.
Dr Pell also recalls the sporting activities at the camp and its structures. He says he remembers the complainant, whose allegations forced him to stand aside as Archbishop of Sydney and plunged the church into crisis.
The archbishop says he also recalls the other boy, now dead, whom the complainant alleges had told him he was also sexually molested by Dr Pell.
Dr Pell rejects claims that he was known at the camp as "Big George", as the complainant asserts.
He says he has not seen the complainant since 1961 and strenuously rejects the allegations that he fondled him or the other boy.
He also gives the commission the names of a number of other boys, student priests and church workers he remembers from the camps.
Dr Pell talks about the deep personal hurt the allegations have caused him, his family and friends and speaks of the damage they have caused to the church and Catholic faith, to which he has devoted his life. He refers also to the distress caused to him by publicity given to the allegations in Australia and overseas.
The archbishop stresses his abhorrence of such abuse and details the extensive measures he has taken to prevent it and to care for the victims.
He gives considerable detail of the measures he has introduced to give alleged victims a fair hearing, to provide for their care and to compensate them for their pain and suffering.
Dr Pell does not refer by name to the student priest who later faced charges for child abuse as an abuser, but mentions him along with several other student priests who were with him at the camps.
The priest, Father Anthony Salvatore Bongiorno, now dead, was acquitted in 1996 by a Melbourne court of the offences.