A Catholic archdiocese today apologised and introduced new guidelines to train clergy in "cultural understanding" after a priest who said a woman would not have been raped and murdered had she been more "faith filled" and not outside at 3am.

The priest was speaking at a service at a Catholic primary school in Melbourne, Australia when he brought up the case of murder victim Jill Meagher.

He held up a newspaper with a picture of killer Adrian Bayley on it and said that has his victim been "more faith-filled" she would have been in bed at home and "not walking down Sydney Road at 3am".

Meagher was raped and murdered by Adrian Bayley in 2012. He currently has a total of ten rape convictions and is serving a life sentence.

Shane Healy, spokesman for the Melbourne archdiocese, told the Guardian that church officials had met over the weekend and were putting in place new measures to prevent future such comments.

"I'm not going to go into specifics but more generally, it's around training, better cultural understanding of what's happening in the community, and we're in the middle of rolling those out today."

Jane Vanderstoel, the convener of the Victorian Centre Against Sexual Assault, welcomed the new guidelines. 

"Obviously the church struggles, and sometimes older men struggle, to really understand that what they're saying blames women for what happens to them," she said, adding: "The comments only perpetuate a victim-blaming mentality and the myth that women are responsible for other people harming them, and it's really disappointing."

Both the priest and the archdiocese have subsequently apologised.

Meagher's husband, Tom Meagher, wrote on Facebook that the priest's comments were "shameful".

Her family is preparing to sue the state of Victoria, arguing the region failed to protect their daughter by letting Bayley out on parole.