• Napier gathering highlights gap between apology and justice

Catholic Church abuse survivors and supporters will gather in Napier on Saturday, 9 May 2026, for a Loud Fence ribbon-tying event—offering a survivor-led alternative to a public apology being delivered the same day in Auckland by the New Zealand Marist Brothers, which some survivors say falls short of accountability.

The gathering will take place at the Dickens Street fence of St Patrick’s Church, Napier—a site already connected to abuse within Marist institutions—transforming it into a space of public witness, remembrance, and solidarity.

While institutional apologies are often framed as accountability, many survivors continue to experience them as controlled and incomplete. The Napier gathering has been organised to ensure survivors are not confined to institutional narratives, but can speak and be present on their own terms.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Aotearoa New Zealand does not support the Marist Brothers’ apology event and is calling for survivor-centred alternatives grounded in genuine accountability.

Why SNAP Aotearoa Does Not Support the Apology

SNAP states that its position is based on specific and ongoing concerns:

• The Marist Brothers have not offered personal apologies to survivors even in cases where complaints have been upheld.
• Some survivors were not permitted to speak at the public apology event.
• The Marist Brothers continue to endorse a redress process called “A Path to Healing,” administered by the New Zealand Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS), which they know survivors report as harmful.
• The Marist Brothers have disregarded the NOPS system they publicly endorse, while using survivors’ criticism of that system to justify withholding survivor support.

Taken together, these concerns raise serious questions about whether the apology represents meaningful accountability or a controlled public exercise.

SNAP Statement

“Victims and their families are being asked to accept words without change,” said Mary Speller, a spokesperson for SNAP Aotearoa New Zealand. “An apology that excludes them, whilst sidestepping accountability and continuing to rely on systems that cause harm is not an apology. Survivors deserve more than managed ‘apologies’—they deserve to be heard, respected, and met with genuine accountability brought about by trauma-informed substantive change.”

A Call to Stand in Solidarity

The Loud Fence movement has become a widely recognised symbol of solidarity with survivors. The ribbons gathering at Napier is a public act of witness, a simple though powerful act—making visible the stories faith-based institutions have too often contained or ignored. It asserts that survivor voices do not belong to institutions, and that accountability cannot be performed—it must be lived, demonstrated, and sustained.

The public is therefore invited to:

• Tie a ribbon in honour of survivors
• Stand in public solidarity
• Bear witness to lived experience
• Help ensure survivor voices are neither silenced nor sidelined

Napier Event Details

Loud Fence Ribbons Tying Gathering
 
Dickens Street Fence of St Patrick’s Church, Napier,
Saturday, 9 May 2026
Beginning 10 AM and ongoing

All survivors, whānau, and supporters are welcome.

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