His comments came after ABC's Lateline last night reported on Anthony Foster, whose daughters were raped by Melbourne priest Kevin O'Donnell when they were in primary school.

Mr Foster alleged Cardinal Pell stalled the family's compensation claim against the Catholic Church when he was archbishop of Melbourne.

Asked about the broadcast, Bishop Fisher told this morning's World Youth Day press conference: "The cardinal and I were otherwise occupied last night enjoying the youth festival so we didn't see the Lateline story.

"All I've seen is the reports in the newspapers today.

"Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying [and] delighting in the beauty and goodness of these young people and the hope for us doing these sorts of things better in the future, as we saw last night, rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds."

He said Cardinal Pell had led the church in trying to put in place better processes to deal with sexual abuse claims.

"I am convinced that he has done all he can and will continue to receive, as I hear today that was suggested on Lateline, some ways that we might improve processes for the future.

"We are happy to hear any constructive advice on how we can do this better in the future. In the meantime to do all we can to prevent this happening again and to bring healing and justice to the victims of these terrible cases."

He could not say if Cardinal Pell would meet Mr Foster, but said Cardinal Pell had a long history of meeting victims of clerical sexual abuse.

"He is very open to meeting victims. And if that can be constructive, if there can be a genuine conversation, I suspect again he is a generous and compassionate man and he will want to do what he can to heal these victims as any others."