by Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marist Brothers in Aotearoa New Zealand have issued a formal and unreserved apology to survivors of abuse, acknowledging what they called a \u201cprofound shame\u201d and a dark chapter in their history. The apology, delivered at a national gathering attended by survivors both in person and online, marks one of the most direct public acknowledgements yet from the Catholic order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Provincial of the Star of the Sea Province, Br Darren Burge fms<\/strong>, opened with a stark admission: \u201cI apologise for these crimes and abuse\u2026 It is a source of profound shame that child abuse of any type occurred under our care.\u201d<\/em> He said the apology had been shaped in consultation with survivors and offered with \u201cunreserved and heartfelt\u201d remorse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Br Darren spoke of his personal sorrow and the limits of his own understanding. \u201cI appreciate that I will never fully comprehend the burden you carry,\u201d he said, adding that the Brothers were committed to \u201clistening, learning and responding in the ways you need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The apology comes against the backdrop of the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, which has revealed widespread mistreatment across state and faith\u2011based institutions. The Marist Brothers\u2014who ran schools, boarding facilities and youth programmes across the country\u2014have been the subject of numerous survivor testimonies detailing physical, emotional and sexual abuse dating back decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Provincial Delegate Br Peter Horide fms<\/strong> described the day as one of \u201chumility, shame and recognition of dark history,\u201d praising the courage of survivors who have come forward despite the cost. \u201cYour voice matters. Your experiences matter. Your courage matters,\u201d he said. \u201cYou will be listened to, honoured, and met with respect, dignity and care that should always have been yours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both leaders committed the order to survivor\u2011focused redress and to ensuring that past failures are never repeated. Br Darren said the apology must stand as a permanent warning: \u201cWe must never lose from our collective memory the experiences of what so many have suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Brothers said they welcome any survivor who chooses to come forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com. The Marist Brothers in Aotearoa New Zealand have issued a formal and unreserved apology to survivors of abuse, acknowledging what they called a \u201cprofound shame\u201d and a dark chapter in their history. The apology, delivered at a national gathering attended by survivors both in person and online, marks one of the most<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40],"tags":[1139,684,117,1138,113,671],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-12943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-faith","8":"tag-apology","9":"tag-catholic-church-2","10":"tag-church","11":"tag-marist-brotherrs","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-sexual-abuse"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Marist-logo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12946,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12943\/revisions\/12946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12943"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}