The Goulburn based CEO of Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited was attending an international conference but thanks to Australia's Ambassador to the Holy See, Chiara Porro, was able to meet the Pontiff.

"She introduced me and he said 'thank you for all you do in protecting little ones. It's an issue close to my heart,'" Dr Stephens said.

"It was a very special moment. I'm very fond of Pope Francis."

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Dr Stephens was invited to speak at the International Safeguarding Conference, held from June 20 to 22. It drew together up to 130 delegates from around the world and explored 'Reporting Abuse: Obligations, Dilemmas and Realities.'

For the past year, the former federal Labor senator and committed catholic has helped lead Australia's response to sexual abuse within the church.

Her speech, 'Reporting Abuse: Challenges in Navigating Canon and Civil Law and Cultural Practices,' drew heavily on what had happened since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

"The catholic church's work started 10 years ago (when the Royal Commission began) in response to evidence," Dr Stephens said.

"The church knew it needed to confront what was being revealed and make changes."

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Pope Francis' subsequent Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors rolled out changes and a framework for each diocese to apply.

At the same time, every Australian state and territory signed a COAG agreement, which Dr Stephens said was essentially a contract to protect children. Investigatory powers were also established.

Within the church, there have been changes to seminarians' recruitment, their curriculum, safeguarding practices and a complaints process that ensured procedural fairness. The redress scheme was also a central plank.

"The system is not perfect and we know that improvements are needed," Dr Stephens said.

"...The crux of the conference was putting victims and survivors at the centre of the way responses to abuse are managed. It looked at understanding intergenerational trauma and how the church deals with abuse in a local context."

In her role, she is tasked with rolling out a consistent approach to responses and to ensure commitments made to the Royal Commission are being implemented. The church and other organisations report annually to the National Office of Child Safety.

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But Dr Stephens said the church was looking well beyond compliance to cultural change, which she described as the hardest thing to measure. At its core was acknowledgement that the abuse occurred.

This week the second assembly of the Plenary Council held a lamentation service which acknowledged the abuse of victims and survivors and committed to "the journey of recovery." Significant work is also underway with victims.

Key outcomes from the conference included policy changes and establishment of a new institution to research child abuse and safeguarding within the church; canonical improvements to speed-up investigations; ongoing education throughout religious life and strengthening an international network to improve cultural practices. Dr Stephens said the latter was important because not every country had strong legislative frameworks to deal with the problem.

"It was a hugely confronting few days but it stimulated my brain to think about what was going on in the rest of the world," she said.

Dr Stephens, the chair of Sts Peter and Paul's Cathedral restoration committee, also took the opportunity to invite Ms Porro to the project's expected November 30 opening.

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