Vanier, who had fallen under the spell of Fr. Thomas Phillipe, founded L’Arche to reunite a (Phillipe’s) religious sect with ‘mystical-sexual’ practices.
I admit that I was a great admirer of Jean Vanier, founder of l’Arche communities, where members lived with mentally challenged individuals and accompanied them in their loneliness and abandon. I fervently read one of his books full of attractive spirituality.
My admiration was shattered on learning that French layman Jean Vanier also had feet of clay: he had been seduced by Dominican priest Thomas Phillipe to accompany him in a sect that sexually exploited women.
“A nearly 900-page report released Monday found that Mr. Vanier, who in 1964 founded the international network of homes to support adults with intellectual disabilities, sexually exploited at least 25 non-disabled women until his death in 2019, 19 more cases than originally known.”
Worse still, recent investigations show that Vanier founded l’Arche to enable the continued false mystical sexual exploitation perpetrated by his mentor Fr. Thomas who had been censured by Catholic authorities but not controlled and stopped.
“The report further stated that Mr. Vanier created L’Arche as a “screen” to reunite a religious sect called L’Eau Vive, which had been disbanded for their exploitive “mystical-sexual” beliefs and practices that included “sexual abuse, collective delirium…[and] incestuous representations of relationships between Jesus and Mary.” These practices did not spread beyond the first L’Arche community where Mr. Vanier in Trosly-Breuil, France, according to the report.The report further stated that Mr. Vanier created L’Arche as a “screen” to reunite a religious sect called L’Eau Vive, which had been disbanded for their exploitive “mystical-sexual” beliefs and practices that included “sexual abuse, collective delirium…[and] incestuous representations of relationships between Jesus and Mary.” These practices did not spread beyond the first L’Arche community where Mr. Vanier lived in Trosly-Breuil, France, according to the report.”
An independent commission has confirmed claims of sexual abuse by Jean Vanier and unearthed evidence that sexual exploitation was his primary motivation for founding L’Arche.
“The primary intention, which from December 1963, pushed J. Vanier and the former members of L’Eau Vive to plan to settle in Trosly-Breuil, was to gather around [Thomas] Philippe,” the French Dominican priest who founded L’Eau Vive and served as Mr. Vanier’s spiritual father, the report states.
Now I wonder: Vanier, another Maciel: l’Arche, another Legion of Christ?
The exploitative founder, the ambivalent motivations, the secrecy, the mistico-spirituality
Let the reader find the parallels and reach their own conclusions
