A report commissioned by L’Arche concludes that co-founder Jean Vanier sexually assaulted 25 women during his decades with the charity.
L’Arche Internationale indicated on Monday that a commission’s investigation identified 25 women who experienced, at some point in their relationship with Jean Vanier, “a situation involving a sexual act or an intimate gesture”, between 1952 and his death in 2019.
However, according to the findings of a group of independent French academics, this number could be higher. “The Commission makes the assumption that this number of twenty-five is lower than the actual number of women concerned,” reads a summary of the report.
Jean Vanier, son of former Governor General of Canada Georges Vanier, was a Canadian naval officer and university professor in Toronto, before turning to Catholic charities.
He founded L’Arche in 1964 as an alternative living environment where people with intellectual disabilities could be full participants in the community, instead of patients.
The 908-page report was commissioned by L’Arche to better understand the actions of Jean Vanier and Father Thomas Philippe, a Catholic priest whom Jean Vanier called his “spiritual father.” A previous report made public in February 2020 concluded that Jean Vanier had manipulative sex with at least six women in France between 1975 and 1990 and used his power over them to take advantage of it.
The new report says the relationships between Jean Vanier, who died in 2019, and the women “are all part of a continuum of confusion, control and abuse.”
Report authors cast doubt on Jean Vanier’s account of L’Arche’s origins, saying it was not a ‘revelation’ during a visit to a mental institution that led him to found the organization charitable. On the contrary, the devotion to helping people with disabilities offered him a “screen” to continue his association with Thomas Philippe, who had espoused “mystico-sexual” beliefs and had previously been sanctioned by the Catholic Church for abuse.
They reveal that the hidden cult identified people seeking spiritual guidance and exploited them for sexual purposes. It was mainly established in the French town of Trosly-Breuil, where L’Arche was founded.
“It is within the community of Trosly that the majority of the cases of control and sexual abuse entrusted to the Commission took place”, indicates the report. People accused of sexual abuse have been members and have held positions there, victims still live nearby. »
There is no evidence that people with intellectual disabilities have been abused. The alleged abuse was mostly confined to the community in France, but the commission said it had received reports of abuse in other countries, including Canada and India. The women linked to Jean Vanier have all been described as young adults, between the ages of 20 and 35, single, married or having taken religious vows.
“Without necessarily declaring themselves all victims, the women who testified underline the confusion between the spiritual, emotional and sexual planes, which characterized the relationship”, we read in the report.
In a press release, L’Arche Canada supports the report and thanks the women who came forward.
“We stand with them and with others who have suffered abuse,” writes the Canadian branch.
The February 2020 revelations left the Canadian branch and many organizations wondering what to do about Jean Vanier. His name is attached to several Catholic schools across Canada, and he has also been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Order of Canada and the Ordre national du Québec.
There are 160 L’Arche communities in 38 countries, including 28 communities and two projects in Canada.
The team that conducted the research included historians, a sociologist, a psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst and a theologian. They conducted 119 interviews with 89 people, in addition to studying numerous archival documents from L’Arche and religious orders.
They found no sign of a cover-up of the acts, which were limited to a small core of the sect which included Jean Vanier and Thomas Philippe.
In a letter, L’Arche International leaders say they are appalled by the details revealed on Monday and once again condemn Jean Vanier’s actions, apologizing for not spotting the abuse and thanking those who came forward.
“We reiterate our gratitude to those who, a few years ago, broke the silence about Father Thomas Philippe [en 2014] then of Jean Vanier, and thus helped others to free themselves from an intolerable burden”, write the international leaders, adding: “What justifies L’Arche is not its founder, but the life of its members, with and without disabilities, at the service of a more humane society. »