L’ARCHE TIMELINE
1964 (August): Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier with French men Philippe Seux and Raphael Simi established the first L’Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France. They were soon joined by Jacques Dudouit and Jean-Pierre Crépieux, along with friends of Vanier’s who came to assist.
1971: Vanier co-founded Faith and Light with Marie-Hélène Mathieu. 12,000 pilgrims, including 4,000 with intellectual disabilities, assembled in Lourdes for celebration.
1972: The first Federation Meeting took place in Ambleteuse, France, and an international charter was written.
1981: Vanier stepped down as leader of the L’Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France.
1992 (December3) : The United Nations established the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
1999: L’Arche International was legally incorporated in France.
2006: The United Nations signed a convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
2014: L’Arche celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.
2019 (May 7): Jean Vanier died in Paris, France.
2023: The Federation of L’Arche rewrote its charter and mission statements.
2024: L’Arche network had grown to more than 150 communities in thirty-eight nations around the world.
FOUNDER/GROUP HISTORY
Individuals with intellectual disabilities in the early 1960s were marginalized in nearly every culture. In many European countries, as well as Canada, Australia and the U.S., large institutions that were established in the nineteenth century began with grand ideals of providing training and education so that everyone could reach their full potential (Shearer 1981). However, their founding mission rapidly deteriorated through lack of funding and commitment, and they soon became simply warehouses for problematic populations (Goffman 1991). In many parts of Africa and Asia, people with disabilities were often kept hidden, regarded as a shame for their families and as a threat to society. The main research conducted in this area had involved the disabled individuals being used as subjects in disturbing medical experiments.
During the 1950s, families with disabled were beginning to organize together to find better ways to care for family members. Journalists, such as Pierre Burton in Canada (Berton 2013), were starting to publish searing exposes of these institutions. By the 1960s, large institutions for people with intellectual disabilities were being closed, and the residents were increasingly offered options for more home-based community living in local communities. Disability movements headed by people with physical disabilities were growing alongside other civil rights movements. It was in this general milieu that Jean Vanier became immersed.
In that context of early experiments in community living, the first L’Arche house began in France in August, 1964 when Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier moved into a small house with three men from a local institution: Raphael Simi, Philippe Seux, and someone who stayed for only one night, remembered only as Dany, whose needs were too complex for an unstructured experiment in community living (Whitney-Brown 2019a). Jean-Louis Coic, an old friend of Vanier’s, also moved into the small house for the first few weeks. They were soon joined by two more men with intellectual disabilities: Jacques Dudouit and Jean-Pierre Crépieux. Some of Vanier’s friends moved to the village to support the new endeavour. Vanier and his friends had chosen the location because his mentor and friend, Dominican priest Thomas Philippe, had moved there already to become chaplain for a small institution of men with intellectual disabilities, called The Val.
The people with intellectual disabilities came from a range of backgrounds. Some came from wealthy families. Others had been literally caged in institutions since childhood, some were found homeless on the streets, many had suffered extreme abuse, others had lived in large institutional settings, some came from families who loved them but could not care for them into adulthood.
Jean Vanier was the symbolic leader in the establishment of L’Arche, although the movement subsequently developed largely outside of his involvement. He was born the fourth of five children to Canadian parents, Major-General Georges Vanier and Pauline Vanier in Geneva, Switzerland. Georges Vanier at one point had considered entering a seminary. During Jean Vanier’s life his father served as Canada’s Governor General, the representative of Canada’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth II. Jean was the fourth of the five children. He was well educated in important later to the initial development of L’Arche. The family name meant that L’Arche generated immediate media interest across Canada and helped L’Arche make international connections and raise money both privately and through government grants.
During World War II Vanier’s family left Paris just prior to Nazi occupation; during the war he spent time at an English naval academy, and in 1942 enrolled in what became Britannia Royal Naval College. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1949. However, he resigned his commission the following year to pursue an academic career in Paris. Vanier completed a PhD in philosophy from the Institut Catholique de Paris, and published his dissertation as the first of his thirty published works. He went on to teach philosophy at the University of St. Michael’s College and, later, the University of Toronto for one year.
In 1950, Vanier enrolled in L’Eau vive (Living water), which Dominican priest Father Thomas Philippe had established as an international training center. The center offered foundational instruction in theology and philosophy and also “an introduction to contemplative life based on Carmelite mysticism and a strong Marian devotion” (The Report 2023). Vanier immediately developed admiration for Philippe and became Philippe’s favorite student. However, unbeknownst to Vanier initially, Phillipe had developed some radical ideas and practices in the late 1930s that led to his downfall two decades later
Ultimately, continued violations led to Philippe being forced to resign as head of L’Eau vive in 1952; he was later dismissed from priestly duties in 1956. Upon leaving L’Eau vive, Philippe appointed his young protégé Vanier as head of the organization. Shortly after Vanier was appointed, he was provided the details of Philippe’s resignation. Vanier responded with a letter the following year stating that the accusations were “incomprehensible” to him and continued his relationship with Phillipe despite opposition from the Vatican (The Report 2023). However, these troubling signs resurfaced in 2020 (See, Issues/Challenges).
Vanier has reported that it was in the early 1960s he first became aware of the plight of individuals who were institutionalized with developmental disabilities and received a call to work on their behalf. He then resigned his academic post in 1964 after only one term at Toronto to pursue a calling on behalf of individuals with disabilities. He invited his mentor Thomas Philippe and two others to live in his home in Trosly-Breuil as a group with several individuals with mental disabilities to pursue his calling. The home was named L’Arche (The Ark).
In 1971, Vanier co-founded Faith and Light with Marie-Hélène Mathieu. 12,000 pilgrims, including 4,000 with intellectual disabilities, assembled that year in Lourdes for a celebration. The movement expanded into a large network of local communities consisting of family and friends of individuals with intellectual disabilities that met monthly. Faith and Light has organized pilgrimages to Lourdes or Rome every ten years since 1971.
Through his career, Vanier published over thirty books. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize) and was awarded numerous accolades and honors. (Légion d’Honneur, Joseph Kennedy Foundation Award, and the Templeton Prize). He had close personal relationships with both Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. Jean Vanier died at the age of ninety in Paris, France. Vanier remained the leader of the L’Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France until 1981. He lived there until just a few weeks before his death.
While Vanier was the inspiration for and founder of L’Arche, the movement has far transcended his personal career and initiatives. Indeed, Varnier stepped down as leader of the L’Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France in 1981. The movement has since flourished and earned international respect largely independent of his leadership since that time. It was only after his death that sexual misconduct allegations began to surface (See, Issues/Challenges).
The expansion of L’Arche has coincided with growing recognition of the rights of those with disabilities. For example, in 1992 United Nations established the International Day of Persons with the Disabilities, and in 2006 the United Nations signed a convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The movement grew rapidly internationally. Beginning in 1969, with its establishment in Canada and India (1969). L’Arche arrived in the U.S. and in a number of nations in Africa, Australia, Europe and Latin America during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. This growth has continued, and the L’Arche network had grown to more than 150 L’Arche communities in thirty-eight nations around the world by 2023.
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS
L’Arche is strongly rooted in the Christian gospel. It has been influenced by the Catholic religious tradition but is not formally linked to the Catholic Church and accepts participants with any religious identity or no religious identity. There is a common organizational commitment to a trust in God. The core vision is one of inclusiveness, mutuality, and elevation. Given L’Arche’s international composition, participants bring to the organization a variety of histories, cultures, philosophies, and experiences (L’Arche website, “Spirituality,” 2023). These commitments are articulated in L’Arche’s identity and mission statements (L’Arche website, “Identity and Mission,” 2023):
Identity Statement:
We are people with and without intellectual disabilities*, sharing life in communities belonging to an International Federation.
Mutual relationships and trust in God are at the heart of our journey together.
We celebrate the unique value of every person and recognise our need of one another.Our mission is to…
Make known the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities, revealed through mutually transforming relationships.
Foster an environment in community that responds to the changing needs of our members, whilst being faithful to the core values of our founding story.
Engage in our diverse cultures, working together toward a more human society.The “guiding insight” that connects identity and mission is that “Mutual relationships among people with and without intellectual disabilities transform us by revealing the unique value of every person. This experience is a sign in the world that all belong” (L’Arche website, “The Charter,” 2023).
We are committed to the dignity of every person.
People with intellectual disabilities have insights, leadership, and gifts that society needs.
We value sharing life together with all our differences.
We live the call and challenge of community.
We value our relationship with the whole of creation.
Caring for the Earth is part of caring for each other.
The first L’Arche charter was written in 1972; there were subsequent revisions in 1992, 2008, and 2023 (L’Arche website “Charter Process,” 2023).
RITUALS/PRACTICES
L’Arche’s organizational practices flow directly out of its values (L’Arche website, “Spirituality,” 2023). The emphasis is sharing community spaces in “households, workplaces, and other forms of gathering” through work, daily routines, mutually organized activities,” and gatherings for “reflection, storytelling, welcome, ritual, and prayer.” There are collective celebrations of individual life-cycle markers, such as “birthdays, anniversaries, welcomes, departures, growth and death.“
ORGANIZATION/LEADERSHIP
This first L’Arche community in France was strongly based in Roman Catholic spirituality. In 1969, L’Arche became ecumenical when the first L’Arche community outside of France was opened in Canada by Vanier’s friends Steve and Ann Newroth, an Anglican couple with backgrounds in business, theology, farming, and flying.
Two years later, L’Arche became interfaith when Gabrielle Einsle, a German woman who left Germany after WWII and began an international student house in Montreal, opened L’Arche in India with grant money from the Canadian government, welcoming people who were Hindu and Muslim.
Further international expansion occurred quickly. Vanier’s sister Therese Vanier was a pioneer in the British palliative care movement at the peak of her medical career when she began the first L’Arche house in Canterbury, England. In the U.S., L’Arche began in Erie, Pennsyvania, when several people from a large institution were welcomed by an American Benedictine nun and a diocesan priest responding to Vatican II and the Vietnam War. L’Arche was launched in the complicated political milieu of Haiti by a poetry-loving philosophy professor from Quebec, and in Honduras by a French Jewish woman seeking a new vision for society after the 1968 student uprisings. The director of the first African L’Arche community was a young Canadian who grew up in liberal Protestant and Evangelical traditions; he found in the L’Arche movement a practical way to follow the teachings of Jesus wholeheartedly (Whitney-Brown 2019a and 2019b). By the end of its first decade, L’Arche communities had been established in xx countries. By 2000, L’Arche expanded to include …
As it developed, L’Arche became an international, federated network of organizations with the mission of establishing and sustaining homes, organizational programs, and support resources for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Both individuals with and without intellectual disabilities work as equal partners in the operation of homes and programs. The guiding assumption in this partnership is that every individual is unique and of equal value. This is to be achieved“Through unity in diversity, strength in fragility, and freedom in interdependence….”
The network consists of independent locally managed “communities,” organized nationally and regionally; communities typically manage a number of residential facilities and support programs. While L’Arche has Christian roots, individual communities represent the cultural, ethnic, and religious traditions wherever they are located. Because they are engaged locally, they simultaneously reflect the overall network mission and the unique features of the host communities. Because L’Arche has continued to expand, the network predictably has become more diverse. Individual communities are variously supported financially by governmental units, local donations, and contributions from the larger L’Arche network.
ISSUES/CHALLENGES
L’Arche was a remarkably successful movement following its formation in 1964. The movement faced some predictable and largely internal developmental issues as it sought to create a network of connected but independent organizations. However, the movement grew quickly and gained considerable international respect following its inception. It was, therefore, an enormous shock to the organization and its members when six women in France came forward in 2019 with allegations of sexual abuse by Jean Vanier, who had been regarded by movement members as the “spiritual father” of the movement.
The moment of crisis for L’Arche began with a claim by Philippe that in 1938 he had experienced a “mystical union” with the Virgin Mary and his “graces” (sexual organs) while standing in front of a fresco of the Virgin. He went on to develop a ritualized re-enactment of a hypothesized sexual union between Jesus and Mary that involved non-coital sexual activity. He organized these ritual re-enactments, voluntarily and involuntarily involving Carmelite nuns and L’Arche volunteers, in the connected religious communities around Trosly-Breuil. Philippe developed a series of theological justifications to legitimate these rituals. Vanier began his personal involvement in these rituals around the time Philippe left L’eau vive in 1952.
When reports of these rituals came to light in 2019, an external investigation was immediately commissioned by L’Arche International, and a 900 page final report was issued in 2023 (The Report 2023). The report unequivocally repudiated the theological innovations and ritual practices developed by Philippe and continued by Vanier. It acknowledged that the abuse involved twenty-five women for varying durations over a several decade period. The women involved were young adult women who were nuns and both married and single women who worked at L’Arche. Spiritual justifications were used to legitimate the non-coital abuse.
The situation in which L’Arche found itself was complicated by the fact that Philippe had died in 1993, Vanier died in 2019, and the organization had long since moved beyond the active leadership of either of the two principals. No evidence has suggested that any of disabled individuals L’Arche serves was involved in the abusive activities, nor were any of the network communities outside of the few in which Philippe or Vanier was personally present involved. There also has been no evidence of related activity by other leadership in L’Arche following Vanier’s passing in 2019. In short, a small, shadow organization operated in the Trosly-Breuil area without the knowledge of movement members.
The report that followed the allegations against Vanier was boundary setting and unequivocal, there were, nonetheless, continuing effects for members around the world who harbored a sense of betrayal and lost the inspirational foundational narrative about L’Arche’s founder and founding. As one leader of a L’Arche community commented retrospectively (Coppen 2023):
“Although the shock factor is not as great, and it’s taking more time to process all that is in the report, there are little details that stick in my head and make it harder to dismiss the findings as long ago and far away,” she told The Pillar in an email interview.
“For example, that Jean continued the abusive behavior until the year he died. That he lied about it, flat-out, to people I care about who loved and trusted him. And not only did Jean not show any remorse, but he didn’t seem to understand the damage he had done even when confronted by women he abused.”
“So yes, I continue to feel anger and resentment and sadness for those who were most affected.”
The movement also faced the difficult task of explaining a now complicated history to disabled community members (core members) and reassuring them of their continued safety. With respect to the L’Arche identity and organizational network, there were numerous renaming initiatives for honors conveyed, building names, and website identities.
Finally, at the end of the lengthy movement retrospection, repudiation of Jean Varnier, and organizational readjustments, L’Arche reasserted the vision and organizational activity that all of the communities and members outside of Trosly-Breuil had in fact shared. The orientation bracketed the past and focused on the present and future of the movement. The organizational reboot included adoption of a new charter model that included a safeguarding audit, revision of methods of supervision, and, most importantly a revision of L’Arche’s original centralized leadership model (Tadié 2023).
As two leaders summarized the organizational reset (Taccone 2020):
What justifies L’Arche is not its founder, but the life of its members, with and without disabilities, at the service of a more human society. This task of re-reading our past will help us remain faithful to this commitment.
REFERENCES
Berton, Pierre. 2013. “Huronia: Pierre Berton warned us 50 years ago.” Toronto Star, September 20. Accessed from https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/huronia-pierre-berton-warned-us-50-years-ago/article_920b0027-ea08-55b7-8145-9ef158cc1c06.html on 19 July 2024.
Coppen, Luke. 2023. “L’Arche after Vanier: ‘We’ve moved on from Jean’.” The Pillar, February 24. Accessed from https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/larche-after-vanier-weve-moved-on-from-jean on 12 July 2024.
Goffman, Irving. 1991. Asylums. New York: Penguin.
Granger, Bernard, Nicole Jeammet, Florian Michel, Antoine Mourges, Gwennola Rimbaut, and Claire Vincent-Mory. 2023. Control and Abuse: Investigation on Thomas Philippe, Jean Vanier and L’Arche (1950–2019) (Châteauneuf-sur-Charente: Frémur Publications. Accessed from https://commissiondetude-jeanvanier.org/commissiondetudeindependante2023-empriseetabus/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Report_Control-and-Abuse_EN.pdf on 20 September 2024.
L’Arche website. 2023. “About.” Accessed from https://www.larche.org/about-larche/ on 20 September 2024.
L’Arche website. 2023. “Charter Process.” Accessed from https://intranet.larche.org/en/web/charter-process on 19 July 2024.
L’Arche website. 2023. “History and Timeline.” Accessed from https://www.larche.org/about-larche/history/ on 28 September 2024.
L’Arche website. 2023. “Identity and Mission.” Accessed from https://www.larche.org/about-larche/identity-and-mission/ on 19 July 2024.
L’Arche website. 2023. “Spirituality.” Accessed from https://www.larche.org/about-larche/spirituality/ on 19 July 2024.
L’Arche website. 2023. “The Charter of the Communities of L’Arche.” Accessed from https://intranet.larche.org/documents/10181/4016169/The+Charter+of+the+Communities+of+L%E2%80%99Arche+EN_2023_v12_PROOF.pdf/f3b789d9-7430-41e9-a461-ca03f15e9ec6 on 19 July 2024.
Shearer, Ann. 1981. Disability: Whose Handicap? Oxford: Blackwell.
Taccone, Amanda. 2020. “New name for Jean Vanier elementary school unveiled.” CTV News, December 16. Accessed from https://london.ctvnews.ca/new-name-for-jean-vanier-elementary-school-unveiled-1.5233645 on 12 July 2024.
Tadié, Solène. 2023. “L’Arche Leaders Rethink Their Community Model in the Wake of the Vanier Report.” National Catholic Register, June 12. Accessed from https://www.ncregister.com/news/l-arche-leaders-rethink-their-community-model-in-the-wake-of-the-vanier-report on 14 July 2024.
Tourn, Federica and Gordon Urquhart. 2023. “Abuse report from global Catholic group Focolare leaves many questions unanswered.” World, June 12. Accessed from https://www.ncronline.org/news/abuse-report-global-catholic-group-focolare-leaves-many-questions-unanswered on 20 September 2024.
Vanier, Jean and Carolyn Whitney-Brown. 2008. Jean Vanier: Essential Writings. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, Ottawa: Novalis, London UK: Darton Longman and Todd. New edition with additional Introduction by Carolyn Whitney-Brown published by Darton Longman and Todd, 2019
Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. 2023. “It’s Tempting — But Dangerous — To Protect Faith Leaders We Admire.” Sojo.net, February. Accessed from https://sojo.net/articles/its-tempting-dangerous-protect-faith-leaders-we-admire on 25 September 2024.
Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. 2021. “Making Out Jean Vanier” Religious Studies and Theology 40:122‒30.
Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. 2020. “‘It’s a slow process becoming a bridge’: Jean Vanier, L’Arche and the United Church of Canada.” Paper presented at the Canadian Society of Church History (CSCH) virtual meetings at Congress 2020: Historical Papers: Canadian Society of Church History, 2020.
Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. 2020. “‘What We Lose in Certainty’: Re-grieving Jean Vanier” Critical Theology 2:7-8, 21.
Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. 2019. Sharing Life: Stories of L’Arche Founders. Mahweh, NJ: Paulist Press.
Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. 2019. Tender to the World: Jean Vanier, L’Arche and the United Church of Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
Publication Date:
30 September 2024
