The Globe and Mail - 22.02.2020

A10 QTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | SATURDAY,FEBRUARY22,

Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche,
the world’s foremost network of
communities for intellectually
disabled people, has been found
to have engaged in sexually abu-
sive relationships with at least six
women.
After nearly a year of investiga-
tion, L’Arche International is
about to release the findings of
an independent investigation –
to which The Globe and Mail has
had exclusive access in the En-
glish-speaking world – into the
past of Mr. Vanier, who died last
May at the age of 90.
The report establishes that Mr.
Vanier had “manipulative sexual
relationships,” many of them co-
ercive, over the course of 30
years, between 1970 and 2005.
Some of the women were assist-
ants, some were nuns. The report
also establishes that he enabled
and shared sexual partners and
“mystical” sexual practices with
Pere Thomas Philippe, a cen-
sured Dominican priest and seri-
al sexual abuser who was Mr. Va-
nier’s “spiritual father” – and one
of the inspirations for L’Arche.
Mr. Vanier publicly denied any
knowledge of the practices on
more than one occasion.
None of the women were intel-
lectually disabled, the core mem-
bers of L’Arche.
The revelations are a blow to
Mr. Vanier’s vaunted reputation.
He was the son of governor-gen-
eral Georges Vanier who aban-
doned the Navy, the Catholic
church and academia to found a
globe-spanning series of homes
for the intellectually disabled.
Mr. Vanier was a perennial can-
didate for the Nobel Peace Prize, a
Companion of the Order of Cana-
da, a winner of the Templeton
Prize and the Joseph Kennedy
Foundation Award with his good
friend Mother Teresa. As many as
14 schools in Canada bear his
name. He wrote best selling
books, the most famous of
which,Becoming Human, was the
basis of a series of Massey lec-
tures.
How the findings will damage
L’Arche – which began as a revo-
lutionary alternative to the insti-
tutionalization of the intellec-
tually disabled in 1964, and has
since become the crown jewel of
community-based housing for
them – remains to be seen. And
how they will affect the intellec-
tually disabled residents of
L’Arche – among whom Mr. Va-
nier lived until the end of his life

• is difficult to imagine.
  The report, a summary of a
  fuller investigation that has not

been released to protect the con-

fidentiality of the women who

testified, is the product of a series

of escalating suspicions. They be-

gan with a 2014 inquiry into com-

plaints of sexual abuse by as

many as 14 women against Pere

Thomas, Mr. Vanier’s self-admit-

ted “spiritual father” who was in

part responsible for Mr. Vanier

becoming interested in the intel-

lectually disabled.

But Mr. Vanier said he knew

nothing. Another woman sur-

faced in 2016, claiming to have

had a sexual relationship with

Mr. Vanier at his instigation. He

admitted the affair, but claimed it

was consensual. He was never or-

dained as a priest, and so the sus-

picions abated.

But in March of 2019, as Mr. Va-

nier was dying of heart failure,

another women testified that she

too had had a sexual affair with

him. She claimed Mr. Vanier had

indulged in the same “mystical

and spiritual” sexual practices

that Pere Thomas had been ac-

cused of. Mr. Vanier said he could

not remember.

As a result, in April last year,

Stefan Posner, the international

leader of L’Arche, leapt ahead of

what he feared might be an on-

coming scandal by commission-

ing an independent inquiry into

the matter by GCPS Consulting, a

U.K.-based expert in the investi-

gation and prevention of sexual

abuse. By June, he had also com-

missioned a historian to delve in-

to newly unsealed Vatican files,

as well as into the now deceased

Mr. Vanier’s correspondence, to

study the links between Mr. Va-

nier and Pere Thomas.

The findings are damning. Mr.

Vanier has been found, on the

“balance of probabilities,” to

have had at least six relationships

with women at L’Arche, some of

them abusive and all of them co-

ercive and non-consensual. The

relationships occurred over a

stretch of 30 years, between 1970

and 2005, and involved women of

a wide range of ages, all of whom

worked within the L’Arche com-

munity.

The investigation also con-

cluded that between 1952 and

1964, Pere Thomas and Jean Va-

nier shared sexual practices and

even some partners (though at

different times) with several

women, none of whom declared

themselves as victims. Mr. Vanier

founded L’Arche that same year,

in 1964, when, repulsed by the in-

stitutions he had seen, he moved

into a small house in Trosly-

Breuil, outside of Paris, with two

unspeaking middle aged men

with intellectual disabilities. Out

of that innocent move – and now,

it seems, out of that darkness

–L’Arche was born.

The women also describe very

similar sexual experiences –

some of which were distinctly un-

usual. The sexual activity often

derived from a process of “spiri-

tual accompaniment,” in which

the women trusted Vanier to help

them through an emotional crisis

or a religious dilemma. To do

that, Mr. Vanier employed the

same “mystical” practices Pere

Thomas had been censured for

using as long ago as 1952 – tech-

niques Mr. Vanier said in 2015 and

2016 that he knew nothing about,

though he had in fact been famil-

iar with them by then for nearly

50 years.

One nun, describing Mr. Va-

nier’s unwanted sexual advances,

says that “when I expressed my

astonishment saying that I was

consecrated to Jesus, and how

could I manifest my love to Jesus

and to him, he replied: ‘But Jesus

and myself, this is not two, but we

are one .. .It is Jesus who loves you

through me.’ ” Another victim re-

membered Mr. Vanier saying “

‘This is not us, this is Mary and

Jesus. You are chosen, you are

special, this is secret.” He was re-

ferring to the Virgin Mary, not

Mary Magdalene.’ ”

Still another woman, when Mr.

Vanier’s “spiritual accompani-

ment” turned to sexual touching,

told the leader she had a lover.

Mr. Vanier’s reply that “it was im-

portant to distinguish (what hap-

pened between us) referring to

the Song of Solomon.” The rela-

tions went on for “3 or 4 years.”

According to the report, these

practices “crossed boundaries

which are expected and neces-

sary when people are in a rela-

tionship of trust, for example be-

ing spiritually accompanied by

either a priest of a person of au-

thority.” The relationships were

“characterized by significant

abuses of power, whereby the al-

leged victims felt deprived of

their free will and so the sexual

activity was coerced or took place

under coercive conditions.”

Mr. Vanier understood the

women were vulnerable, but they

felt it was impossible to speak of

their affairs. “I was like frozen,”

one of them told the investiga-

tors. “I realized that Jean Vanier

was adored by hundreds of peo-

ple, like a living Saint ... I found it

difficult to raise the issue.”

One of the women confronted

him, and presented him with a

letter in which she declared that

what he had done was “unbear-

able.” His reply? “He told me, ‘I

thought it was good.’ He didn’t

tell me anything else.” All the

women claimed these relation-

ships had long-lasting negative

impacts on their lives, and that

they needed years of psycholog-

ical support the overcome the

consequences of the abuse.

Needless to say, the close-knit

L’Arche community is in a state

of shock over the findings. The

report has been narrowly distrib-

uted to the head of each commu-

nity, so that they can prepare

clear, simple and non-verbal

ways of spreading the news to the

core members, as well as to major

benefactors.

“I have to say that we have

been in conversation with major

donors,” Mr. Posner says. “”And

we have had a very reassuring re-

sponse.” He is also underlining a

distinction L’Arche has made for

year now – that L’Arche the insti-

tution is not the same as L’Arch-

e’s founder.

JeanVanierimplicatedinsexualabuseofwomen

Independent

investigationfinds

L’Archefounder

had‘manipulative

sexualrelationships’

overcourseof30years

IANBROWN

L'ArchefounderJeanVanierathishomeinFrancein2008.IANBROWN/THEGLOBEANDMAIL

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