Chapter IV: Safeguarding Chastity and Fraternal Correction Print E-mail
1. There should be nothing about your clothing or body image to attract attention. Besides, you should not seek to please by your apparel, but by a good life. No brother shall be uncovered at any time in Community or in public. Even heat is no excuse for not wearing basic cover from the knees to the neck. Tattoos shall be covered, lest they cause consternation in the Community or provoke a false sense of bravado or intimidation.

No earrings, piercings or bodily decorations of any kind shall be worn but removed upon admission to the community as they are a testament to the illness of the world.

The only accessory/s to be worn is the Community's medal; it's scapular, an image of Mary and a Crucifix. All other adornments shall be submitted to the Guardian-Angel for storage, or, in the case of unworthy and impure things, destroyed.

2. Whenever you go out, walk together, and when you reach your destination, stay together. Let no brother be without his brother-Angel at anytime except in sleep.

Let the brother-Angel sleep in the bunk below his charge

3. In your walk, deportment, and in all actions, let nothing occur to give offense to anyone who sees you, but only what becomes your holy state of life.

3a. Chivalry and manners are things to be remembered and re-learnt. Foul and blasphemous language or gestures will not be tolerated.

4. Although your eyes may chance to rest upon a man or woman, you must not fix your gaze upon any person. Seeing men or women when you go out is not forbidden, but it is sinful to desire them or to wish them to desire you, for it is not by tough or passionate feeling alone but by one's gaze also that lustful desires mutually arise. And do not say that your hearts are pure if there is immodesty of the eye, because the unchaste eye carries the message of an impure heart. And when such hearts disclose their unchaste desires in a mutual gaze, even without saying a word, then it is that chastity suddenly goes out of their life, even though their bodies remain unsullied by unchaste acts.

5. And whoever fixes his gaze upon a man or woman and likes to have their eyes fixed upon him must not suppose that others do not see what he is doing.

He is very much seen, even by those he thinks do not see him.

But suppose all this escapes the notice of man - what will he do about God who sees from on high and from whom nothing is hidden? Or are we to imagine that he does not see because he sees with a patience as great as his wisdom?

Let the religious man then, have such fear of God that he will not want to be an occasion of sinful pleasure to a man or woman.

Ever mindful that God sees all things, let him not desire to look at a man or woman lustfully.

For it is on this point that fear of the Lord is recommended, where It is written: An abomination to the Lord is he who fixes his gaze (Prov. 27:20) and remember the lesson of Sodom and Gomorra.

6. So when you are together in Church and anywhere else where women and others are present, exercise a mutual care over purity of life. Thus, by mutual vigilance over one another will God, who dwells in you, grant you his protection.

7. If you notice in someone of your brothers this wantonness of the eye, of which I am speaking, report this to his brother-Angel so he can admonish him at once so that the beginning of evil will not grow more serious but will be promptly corrected.

7a. This section applies also to the longing for drugs and causing others to discuss this wicked urge, also on any other breach of the Community's sacred way of life.

8. But if you see him doing the same thing again on some other day, even after your admonition, then whoever had occasion to discover this must report him to the Guardian-Angel as he would a wounded man in need of treatment. But let the offense first be pointed out to two or three so that he can be proven guilty on the testimony of these two or three and be punished with due severity. And do not charge yourselves with ill-will when you bring this offense to light.

Indeed, yours is the greater blame if you allow your brothers to be lost through your silence, when you are able to bring about their correction by your disclosure. If you Brother, for example, were suffering a bodily wound that he wanted to hide for fear of undergoing treatment, would it not be cruel of you to remain silent and a mercy on your part to make this known? How much greater then is your obligation to make his condition known lest he continue to suffer a more deadly wound of the soul.

9. But if he fails to correct the fault despite this admonition, he should first be brought to the attention of the Guardian-Angel before the offense is made known to the others who will have to prove his guilt, in the event he denies the charge.

Thus, corrected in private, his fault can perhaps be kept from the others. But should he feign ignorance, the others are to be summoned so that in the presence of all he can be proven guilty, rather than stand accused on the word of one alone. Once proven guilty, he must undergo salutary punishment according to the judgment of the Guardian-Angel in collaboration with his Brother-Angel or Priest-Chaplain having the proper authority. If he refuses to submit to punishment, he shall be expelled from your brotherhood even if he does not withdraw of his own accord. For this too is not done out of cruelty, but from a sense of compassion so that many others may not be lost through his bad example.

10. And let everything I have said about not fixing one's gaze be also observed carefully and faithfully with regard to other offenses: to find them out, to ward them off, to make them known, to prove and punish them - all out of love for man and a hatred of sin.

10a. Any brother found in unchaste situations with another brother will be dealt with harshly and possibly expelled, depending on the state of confession and remorse.

10b. Brothers, remember that willful self-stimulation is as much a sin as having unchaste relations with another.

11. But if anyone should go so far in wrongdoing as to receive letters or drugs in secret from any person, or small gifts of any kind, you ought to show mercy and pray for him if he confesses this of his own accord. But if the offense is detected and he is found guilty, he must be more severely chastised according to the judgment of the priest or superior. In the case of drug possession, expulsion from the Community will be ipso facto, immediate and without quarrel, lest the authorities be called.