But Darkness Did Not Overcome It

Recently, the feed in my YouTube channel brought up a podcast on the revelations regarding the actions of Jean Vanier who founded the L’Arche communities for developmentally challenged people.  A report released in 2020 into allegations of sexual abuse by Vanier and Thomas Philippe, a Catholic priest who was Vanier’s spiritual mentor concluded:

The key finding in the report: That Vanier’s founding story about the creation of L’Arche was false. Vanier often said he started L’Arche in response to hearing a “cry” from God and seeing the inhumane conditions prevalent in mental institutions. In reality, the creation of L’Arche provided a means for Vanier to reconstitute a sect Philippe had led earlier but that had been broken up by the Catholic Church.

This news sent shockwaves through the religious and spiritual world and shocked the countless number of people who held Vanier to be a modern saint.  Vanier’s impact has been and continues to be almost immeasurable on those who have been positively impacted by the many L’Arche communities in so many countries and by the writing in the prolific books by Vanier.  Fortunately, one positive aspect of the terrible situation was that the report concluded that the abuse by Vanier and Philippe, “did not involve any of the members or residents that the organization served there or elsewhere.”  They involved vulnerable adults who came under the influence of the specter of holiness enabled by the L’Arche communities. 

I was introduced to the work of L’Arche communities during my theological studies at Huron University College.  I was blessed with the opportunity to experience the wonderful work that is done there when I was able one reading week to live with the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario.  The life of that community and their wonderful acceptance and upholding of all the members of the community as well as the respect and support for each member has left a lasting impression on me.  In revisiting the exploration of the tragedy, I wanted to see if I could better understand how someone who seemed to be so saintly could be what can only be described as evil at his essence.

I decided to reread one of the books by Jean Vanier which I had on the shelf in my office - Becoming Human.  I reread the book with the awareness of the revelations of the actions of Vanier and the realization he had founded L’Arche as a means to carry out his perverted theology which, “Vanier and Phillipe were fully committed to a spiritual deviance that they fully believed in themselves.” 

I have very mixed emotions rereading Becoming Human.  I found Vanier to be very insightful in understanding the need for love, need for community, and the need for security that is at the heart of human existence.  Vanier shows this in statements such as, “We do not discover who we are, we do not reach true humanness, in a solitary state; we discover it through mutual dependency, in weakness, in learning through belonging.”  Statements confirm that Vanier had a deep understanding of the human condition, “To be human is to be bonded together, each with our weaknesses and strengths, because we need each other.”

Vanier was able to use this knowledge and insight to prey on that very weakness to accomplish his wicked and perverted goals.  The paradox of Vanier is that, in founding L’Arche he has been the source of great goodness for so many and at the same time, he caused great suffering to the victims of Vanier and Phillip’s evil actions. 

All this is a huge red flag warning about placing individuals on saintly pedestals that can cloud the need for discernment and safeguards by institutions and individuals in how and who we place our trust.  The L’Arche organization set an example for how such revelations should be handled once they come to light.  L’Arche funded the investigation in the actions of Vanier and Phillippe and were open and transparent about the findings. 

One small but significant question that is raised for me is what should I do with the book in my possession and what should become of the many copies of the works Vanier has authored?  Should they be destroyed?  Book burning is not a great idea under any circumstance that I can imagine.  There is great truth and even wisdom in what Vanier has written.  Unfortunately, it was not reflected in who Vanier was.  Perhaps there should be a warning label pasted in every copy.  I will include a copy of this edition of my blog within the covers of my book. 

Let this be a cautionary tail for us on our journey.  

A Day that Lives in Our Memories; A Reflection on 9-11

Where were you on that date?  There are certain dates that most, if not all, people who were alive and more than a few years old, remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.  In my lifetime, the first such date was the assassination of JFK (initials are all that are necessary).  I was coming home after school, living in Fort Qu’Appelle Saskatchewan.  Then there was the landing of the first men. on the moon.  There are some other dates that stand out during my life – like the election of Donald J Trump as President of the United States.  However, the one that is most prominent in my mind that happened 22 years ago today.  It is a date that doesn’t require a year.  It is just September 11^th.  That now has the shorthand of 9-11 which is telling. 

For me it is particularly poignant because it was my first day at Huron University College in London Ontario, as I embarked on a journey which would lead to my ordination as an Anglican priest.  After my class was finished, I went over to the student centre at the University of Western Ontario – as it was then known (now just Western U.)  In the common area I noticed that everyone – and there were many people gathered – were completely mesmerized looking at the TV monitors suspended from the ceiling.  As I looked up, I saw that it was what turned out to be a live picture of the Twin Towers in New York.  As I looked a plane flew into one of the towers.  It turned out to be the second plane.   That was a momentous and tragic beginning to my formal theological education which has continued in one way or another – formally and informally - to this day. 

I imagine that most, if not all of you, remember the circumstances when you heard the news.  In my view this is probably the most significant event in our lifetime and probably beyond.  One reason for that is the almost complete reordering of the world since that day: the Iraq war, the reality of Global Warming Crisis, the pervasiveness of social media, the lack of trust in our institutions, COVID, the crisis of refugees at the borders of Western Countries, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and even the return of inflation.   September 11 seems to mark the beginning of the remaking the world so that it is in many ways a completely different one from that pre-9-11 world.

The question that I believe we all face is, how do we respond to this not so brave new world that we find ourselves living in?  Many of us are in survival mode.  We are hunkering down and hoping the next big change doesn’t overwhelm us.  I recently ventured into the AI world of ChatGPT after resisting that next new thing.  I was amazed at how it responded and the speed in which it responded to my request; a 500-word essay on The Jungian Collective Shadow.  I used some of the response in formulating one of the editions of these missives.  The potential for this development - probably for better and worse - staggers my imagination.  I want to cry out – the robots are taking over!  Perhaps we all should listen to the warning of Robbie the Robot, “Danger Will Robinson.” 

When it comes to change, I think of the joke, how many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb?  Answer, we don’t change, we’re Anglicans.  That now applies to all of us.  Change will happen to us whether we want to or not.  How are we going to respond to the change?  Even we Anglicans are being dragged kicking and screaming into realizing we must change.  I don’t have any real answers - probably no one has the one easy answer that we would all like.  However, one possibility is to embrace hope.  I think of the wonderful response by the people of Gander Newfoundland to 9-11 and the commercial planes that were diverted to that airport in response to 9-11.  It was memorialized in that wonderful musical, Come From Away.  They could have turned their backs and said it’s just too much and anyway its not my problem.   But they didn’t and their response resonates to this day.  That gives me hope for the future – the ability of the human spirit to respond with love. 

Hope is todays word of the day from the Society of St. John the Evangelist:

To be patient means to tolerate or endure discomfort and suffering without denying them. Feel the pain, express it, groan, and then look beyond. Trust that God is both real and active. Hope acknowledges the present suffering while also believing in what lies beyond it.  Br. Luke Ditewig, SSJE

May you have hope on your journey in this brave new world.