Jean Vanier and the Fall of a Hero

Over the past year, I have been reading quite a few books by Jean Vanier. He plays an important part in my DMin thesis. I have thoroughly enjoyed his writings.

It has been more than just reading for school. While his Catholic faith is somewhat different than my Protestant beliefs, his vision for what it means to be human and what following Jesus looks like struck a chord with me. I found a spiritual mentor.

And then the news came in.

I had thought that Jean Vanier’s death would be the worst, the loss of his present voice. This is much worse. Reliable information has revealed that Jean Vanier had sexually abused six women.

Not only did he sexually abuse them, he used his spiritual authority to do it. While none of the women were disabled, it was still a terrible crime.

What do we do with this? There are two extremes. One is to say that his good work outweighs these accusations and that we should minimize his sexual abuse. The other would be to demonize Vanier and all he stood for because of the outrage we feel.

First, we must take what has happened seriously. There has been far too much sexual abuse by church leaders (not just Roman Catholics). We need to condemn these actions and not make excuses. We must acknowledge the suffering of these women.

But what do we do with the writings and Vanier’s legacy of L’Arche? We have to ask if there is value in those things of themselves. If his writings speak gospel truth, that doesn’t end because of his secret past. Truth is truth. And the benefit of L’Arche doesn’t rely on Vanier’s integrity.

The truth is some of the most respected theologians have done similar things. John Howard Yoder is one notable example.

This doesn’t excuse the behaviour, just because others have done it as well. What it does tell us is that God, in his mysterious will, uses broken and sinful people for his kingdom.

I wish Jean Vanier had publicly repented of his abuse before his death but he didn’t. What we can do is learn from his example. If we think of Vanier as one of greatest spiritual leaders of recent years and he could have fallen in such a way, none of us are immune.

We can choose to put all our energy in condemning Vanier or we could take time to examine ourselves. What attitudes and temptations do we have, if left unchecked, could lead to abuse of others?

What Jean Vanier did to those women was wrong. Period. What he did to help people with disabilities was right. One doesn’t make up for the other. They are just two statements of fact.

We should grieve the falling of this hero. And we should try and pick up the pieces and move on the best we can.

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