Anthony and Christine Foster say they have yet to receive an apology from the school since their daughters Emma and Katherine were "repeatedly raped'' by parish priest Father Kevin O'Donnell in the schoolyard in the early '90s.

Last January, Emma, 26, committed suicide after a battle with depression and drug addiction.

Katherine was severely disabled after being hit by a car in 1999. She now needs 24-hour care.

Mrs Foster said the school and church hierarchy needed to acknowledge the past otherwise the same mistakes were liable to happen again.

"Everyone's ducking for cover,'' she said.

"Why would they [apologise to us] when you're a lone voice out there saying, 'What happened?'''

Last week, Sacred Heart Primary School principal Maree Ryan and a spokesman for the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria refused to comment.

Mrs Foster said she and her husband went to a parish meeting after the abuses were discovered more than 10 years ago, but they got a "very cold reception''.

"A nun there said, 'We're trying to forget about it.' It was like they had talked about it and had got over it.

"Meanwhile, we had to look at our children suffering.

"I can't work out their thinking; this was a priest who was raping and/or molesting children in school hours.''

Father O'Donnell, who was jailed for other sex crimes but not prosecuted for the abuses on the Fosters, died in 1997.

An apology was received by then-archbishop of Melbourne George Pell in 1996, and the Fosters later successfully sued the church for damages.

On behalf of cleric sex abuse victims, the Fosters sought a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI while he was in Sydney this month but they were overlooked.