Melbourne's new Catholic Archbishop, Peter A. Comensoli, says the Church must earn back the trust of its members and the wider community in the wake of the sexual abuse scandals of the last 60 years.

In his first major speech since being installed in July, he said, “How do you start building trust? By becoming trustworthy. You don’t build trust by going out and saying, ‘Trust me!’ You do it by your own personal actions.” 

During the course of his speech, the Archbishop broke away from the stage to talk personally with campaigners Eileen Piper and Chrissie Foster - both of whom lost children as a result of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy - who were seated at the back of the room.