The Catholic Education Office regrets that pupils at one of its schools went to a prayer group with a paedophile and is establishing national guidelines to stop it happening again.
St Joseph's Primary School in Upper Hutt says the nearby parish, also called St Joseph's, knew about the man's convictions, but never warned the school.
St Joseph's parish says the paedophile took part in a prayer group at the church with the pupils, but was supervised by a fellow parish member.
It says it did not warn the school as there were no rules requiring it to do so.
The Catholic Education Office says, while that's true, it would have been prudent to keep the man well away from children.
Office head Pat Lynch said some protocols will now be drafted to ensure churches inform schools if one of its volunteers or members has convictions of those sort.
He said the safety of children is most important.
