Serious misconduct
Over the past year, with horror and disbelief, we had to take note of the suffering caused to minors by members of the church and of our brotherhood. The severe consequences of their failures in their educational tasks confront us painfully with a fragile reality that was often hidden behind a respectable status, personal achievement and an authoritative occur. Rather than to be supported in establishing a healthy foundation for their future, those minors were badly hampered in their ability to trust others.
It is difficult to imagine the impact of the disgusting assault by some brothers in the lives of their students.
For us as their brothers, it is shameful to know that, despite the preventive regulations and despite the mutual social control, that they damaged the confidence given to them. Where it was expected that they would contribute to a proper development of their students, they sometimes infringed seriously a harmonies natural development.
We continue to believe in the value and the potentials of our religious and fraternal service, but we are also aware of the misleading influence of power and institutional interests. We do not have to offer incense, myrrh, or any precious metal, what remains is all we have become our good moments but also the failures that we, personally and as a community, have made.
With a shaken self-esteem and a minimum of confidence from our fellow men, but inspired by Jesus and his message, also in the Netherlands, we sincerely want to continue our work with the means at our disposal for the happiness of others.
