Further Thoughts on the Jean Vanier Revelations: (Nefarious) Weeds among the Wheat

I continue my efforts to make sense of the distressing revelations that Jean Vanier (JV), the once highly-esteemed founder of l'Arche, did himself engage in the sexual abuse of at least six women who sought spiritual direction from him, something that his mentor and spiritual father, Fr. Thomas Philippe, also did to others (according to the l'Arche report). My "initial thoughts on the Jean Vanier revelations" can be found here.


"Tradition" "Family"
Let me frame these disheartening revelations in the wider context of "tradition" and how we deal with the dark sides of the tradition(s) we belong to. In order to make this hit closer to home (as it does for many of us), the word "tradition" can even be replaced by "family". How do we deal with the dark, even sinister aspects of our tradition, of our family?

Let's recall that, in various senses, each of us belongs to a "tradition" and to a "family." It is a truism of course that we don't usually choose our traditions and families; we're just born into them. And, as we all know too well, no family is perfect. Some families are not only imperfect, they contain very dark and sinister elements within them. This holds true many times for the groups or the relationships we enter into. No one can perfectly know a potential "friend" or a group one can possibly join at the beginning of the relationship. Unfortunately, we often find ourselves already in a relationship with persons or with groups before we find out the darkness in them.

In the wake of these revelations about Jean Vanier, the reason why I bring up 'traditions and families' here is that I'm thinking of l'Arche above all. I know quite a few people who consider l'Arche their family in a deep sense. How are they holding up now? How do they deal with the destruction of the founder Jean Vanier's holy image after these credible allegations that he himself engaged in sexual abuse?

And then there are the scores of people who may not be strictly connected with l'Arche but whose lives have been touched for the better by Jean Vanier, directly or indirectly, maybe through l'Arche, maybe through JV's teachings received in various forms, or perhaps even just through the high esteem in which JV was held for a long time by many people before the publication of the damning report on his abusive practices. All of us (and I count myself one of those touched by Vanier) have now to make sense of the figure and legacy of Vanier in the light of these recent revelations of sexual abuse by the once-revered founder. How do we go about doing this?

The Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat

There is an intriguing parable of Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30 (NIV version) which, I feel, could speak powerfully to the situation at hand. It goes like this:

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn

In my continuing efforts to make sense of the Jean Vanier revelations, my thoughts turn to this parable. It presents a powerful image of humanity (and everything that pertains to humanity) ... at all levels. Everything is strictly characterized by this metaphorical situation - weeds among the wheat. There is no perfectly pure entity, be it a person, a church, a group, an organization or practically anything under the sun. Every.single.thing is a mixture of "weeds and wheat." This teaching is echoed in practically every religious tradition: "yin and yang," "light and darkness," "samsara and nirvana" (and so forth) are frequently thought and taught to coexist; to mix and fuse; some traditions go so far as to teach that one cannot be without the other. Yes, what is really striking is that "the good wheat and the bad weeds" have to be allowed to coexist and to grow together because, as the householder wisely says in the parable, "while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them" (v. 29).

Becoming a Grown-Up Member of a Family and a Tradition

Growing up is not easy; it's frequently accompanied by lots of "growing pains" (as this kind of pain is very appropriately named). If you had the fortune of having had a happy childhood, one aspect of growing-up is discovering that daddy is not the superman or mommy is not the wonder woman you once thought them to be. At some point, those idealized images just fall apart. In many instances in the process of growing up, we realize just how human our idealized "heroes" in life are - they're deeply flawed. Sometimes, we shockingly discover that these heroes have very sinister and toxic sides to them. In this Vanier affair, the hallowed icon has now been defaced and tragically shattered, without any hope of being restored.

However, we should recall that becoming a grown-up means, among other things, acquiring the capability of dealing with the dark and nefarious sides of our family and tradition, particularly in the "revered" people who embody them. It is especially painful when a personified embodiment of the tradition is discovered to have done evil. Human weaknesses, isolated slips and falls may be more easily excused, but when the embodiment of the tradition's most sacred ideals is found to have been in a continual state of deception about and even betrayal of the very ideals he himself had taught, this is really irredeemable. How to make sense of this?

Again, weeds among the wheat. I must say though that in this case, "weeds" is too benign an image. It doesn't communicate the nefarious quality of these revelations. But the idea is there: evil and good ... coexisting, commingling, growing together, often hard to separate. This is very much part of the mystery of life, in front of which we can only bow down and acknowledge because we fail to truly grasp so much of it.

I also think that it's crucial to affirm another aspect of--what I'll call--the "weeds among the wheat" principle: Both good and evil are greater than any one person or thing. They transcend any individual or thing. Each and every one of us is part of the bigger structures of good and evil that envelop us. Each and every one of us has both good and evil within. Each and every one of us has both an imago Dei (image of God)-a Buddha nature, as well as its opposite, so that no one is unilaterally good or evil. Weeds among the wheat.
(Having said that, I will add though that I fully agree with Jamie Manson's points in her "No, Jean Vanier is not 'like all of us,'" reminding us that there is a particular evil to be found in JV's pattern of behavior)

L'Arche: What the "Wheat" has Become

When I look at the "wheat" and what it has become, I am profoundly grateful. L'Arche, according to its self-definition, serves adults with physical and intellectual disabilities and is rooted in values that recognize the dignity of each person, the importance of belonging in a community, and the creation of a more just society. It's an amazing community and organization. This is a reality that needs to be treasured and cherished, now more than ever! Where did this come from? What is Jean Vanier's part in the development of this magnificent "wheat"? I don't really know the right answers to those queries but I will just stammer out for now (and I may be wrong about this!) ... that if good was perceived in JV or if good was perceived to have come out of him, it's because, yes, he, like all deeply flawed human beings, was also able to tap into the wider matrix of good that thankfully envelops and contains all of us.

And yet we mourn the evil...

And yet, there is no condoning the sinister abuse of others that JV perpetrated over a long course of time. The problem of evil here just stumps all of us and we can only, once again, bow down ... acknowledge it ... and, for now, mourn.

... Hopefully, we can in time recover a little strength, enough for us to get up and move on ... for that is the grown-up thing to do.

L'Arche's Amazing Courage and Transparency

In closing, let me clearly say that I admire the leadership of l'Arche for taking the initiative to commission an independent investigation that led to the revelations of these wrenching and sordid sides of its founder.

I apologize that I'll have to say this hurtful thing about the Catholic hierarchy but I think it is fair: L'Arche is led by lay people, not church hierarchs ... and very thankfully so. Because this non-clergy leadership displayed firstly an admirable compassion for the victims, as well as courage, transparency, and accountability in the face of damning truths about its once-revered founder. Isn't this an amazing case of a lay-led (not clergy-led!) organization courageously striving to make itself accountable? It's an amazing breath of fresh air in leadership! For once an organization rooted in the Catholic tradition gets leadership right! (Of course that was hyperbole because many other Catholic leadership structures display amazing leadership!) But just imagine if clergymen were leading this organization, I'm sorry to say from the record that chances are, the process would have been very different ... (and I'll stop there)

Thank you, l'Arche, from the heart, and more, yes a lot more power to you!


My reports on the 2019 Toronto theological colloquium on the Catholic sexual abuse crisis can be found here . Another article with my biblical reflections on the sexual abuse crisis entitled "Remembering Jerusalem While Rome Burns" can be found here.

My Initial Thoughts on the Jean Vanier Revelations - the Unhealed Wound

Distressing Revelation

Late at night on Feb. 21, the Globe and Mail newspaper released a shocking story that in an internal investigation ordered by l'Arche itself,  Jean Vanier, its revered Canadian founder, has been found out to have himself abused at least six women over the course of a 35 year period.

Some Resources:
An excellent initial report by the Jesuit magazine America / The pdf version of the report released by l'Arche

This news is really distressing for me and for many others, as many of us at King's (King's College-Western University, London, Ontario) where I work have (close to) "revered" Jean Vanier as a contemporary saint. We even have a research centre at our university named after him dedicated to studying his valuable contributions to, among others, the valorization of those with various disabilities. It turns out, Vanier had a very dark and hidden shadow in him which was largely left unaddressed and unsolved and which wrought damage in his victims and many others.

I am sorry, first of all, for the women who had to endure this abuse from Vanier and I admire their courage for coming out to tell the terrible truth. I hope they find some measure of healing and closure.

The Unhealed Wound

At this point, I cannot help but think about what the late Catholic psychologist Eugene Kennedy (a former priest) argued for mainly in a book called The Unhealed Wound: The Church, the Priesthood, and the Question of Sexuality, a book I read many years ago which, I remember, made a deep impression on me.

In his review of the book, John Krejci, describes the book thus,

In the Unhealed Wound Eugene Kennedy, psychologist and married [former] priest, applies to the Church the mythological tales of the Western Knight, who, seeking the Holy Grail, slays the Eastern Knight, who symbolized nature, But in his victory the Western Knight is wounded and the wound will not heal until someone asks, "What is it that ails you?" and the wound is acknowledged. In other words, the Church cannot be whole or fully holy until it recognizes its wound, its imperfection.

Kennedy is therefore putting the spotlight on the fact that there is "an unhealed wound" in the collective psyche of  many Catholics, particularly, in those who are in its structural core, namely, members of the hierarchy, members of religious orders and (I would definitely include) spiritual leaders and teachers (even though they are lay people like Jean Vanier).

This unhealed wound refers to an unwholesome, better yet, a very SICK attitude to sexuality. Kennedy argued (convincingly for me) that historical and conventional Catholicism has driven an unhealthy wedge between grace and nature, practically equating "grace" positively with the state of chastity and celibacy on the one hand, and, on the other, "nature" as sexuality, but viewed in a very negative way and often demonized. Catholicism has never succeeded to integrate these two factors in a healthy, wholesome way, hence, the wound remains and continues to fester, affecting and victimizing so many people in the process.

It is this woeful lack of wholesome integration between spirituality, humanity and sexuality in the common Catholic psyche (especially of Catholic leaders [and Jean Vanier was one such leader in the l'Arche community and among his admirers]) that has resulted in many terrible consequences, such as the continuing scourge of sexual abuse done by some in positions of spiritual authority toward those who are under their authority and pastoral care. Of course, we have to add to that the self-deception and abuse of spiritual authority that are very common in religious/spiritual leaders. The pattern is seen ad nauseam in the many instances of sexual abuse that have plagued the Catholic Church in recent years. This is--I would venture--also clearly seen in what transpired and has been distressingly revealed in Jean Vanier and his spiritual mentor, the Dominican Fr. Thomas Philippe, who also sexually abused people under their authority and care.

[Recalling the Toronto Symposium on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church] We had a noteworthy symposium in Toronto in 2019 about the Catholic sexual abuse crisis. My notes on that symposium are here.

Unhealed Wounds

Unhealed wounds, if not treated properly, go on to fester and eventually can lead to serious infection and even sepsis, a point when the whole organism begins to shut down in a fatal way. I think that this applies in many ways to institutional Roman Catholicism.

Something radical has to be done -- something tantamount to removing the "band aids" that cover the disgusting and festering wound particularly of the Catholic Church's leadership structure. Kennedy said years ago that healing will never come until someone asks the one who is wounded "What is it that ails you?" and truly acknowledges the wound. What is so distressing is that so many people have already asked and acknowledged this. The terrible effects of the wound have been demonstrated in case after case of sexual abuse ad nauseam, as we also see in this latest round of revelations about Jean Vanier and his mentor. The burning question for me and for many is ... what if the wounded person continues to refuse to be healed? What is there still to be done?

My Continued Appreciation for l'Arche

I would also like to say clearly that these revelations about Jean Vanier do not subtract in any way from my deep respect and appreciation for the many outstanding things that l'Arche (its members and the many people who support it-you know who you are!) is doing in the world, particularly, for people with various disabilities. I will continue to support them and I hope its various patrons continue to do so. Keep up the good work and more power to you, l'Arche!

My "further thoughts" on the Jean Vanier revelations can be found HERE

How to Read the Bible: The Biblical Story as a Five-Act Play (acc. to NT Wright)

Transcript-Summary-Paraphrase (by JK Kato) of N.T. Wright's talk in: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN1bZhAhR38&list=WL&index=4&t=0s

Published on Youtube on Dec. 18, 2016

The Metaphor: A Five-Act Play

Imagine that you're part of a guild of actors. During a weekend retreat in an old mansion that once belonged to a great stage actor, you and your friends unexpectedly discover a long-forgotten yet seemingly fascinating play in the dusty attic. Upon further examination, you find out that this riveting

story is composed of four full acts. Unfortunately, the script only goes up to the beginning of the fifth act. Most of the fifth and last act is either unfinished or lost! What would you and your friends do? You may of course get a good playwright, show him or her the unfinished script and request this person to complete the fifth act based on how the wonderful first four acts played out.

Improvisation

However, if you and your friends are good and creative actors, another exciting and more creative alternative course of action would be, first, to "soak yourselves" in the first four acts in order to get the "spirit" and "flow" of the play and then, second, ... improvise the performance of the fifth and final act!

     NT Wright uses the image of improvisation to refer to how Christians should live their lives, based on scripture, so it is a key metaphor here.

     Improvisation (at least in music) is not merely "making up" just anything as you go along, contrary to how it is commonly and too simplistically imagined. More precisely described (by NT Wright who, it turns out, played jazz in his youth!), improvisation in a musical group means that the musicians in the band have to do the following: pay very careful attention to what the others are doing, know well the basic rhythmic and harmonic structure of the musical piece as well as its theme ; and then, they also have to know where it is that all of them are going to at the end. NT Wright describes musical improvisation as "weaving different new creative patterns around the musical drama to get where you have to go."

     The above metaphor is appropriate for us to reflect on what it means to read the Bible and apply its message to life as part of a community that—in NT Wright’s description—is a “Scripture-reading and God-following people” (from Scripture and the Authority of God). In short, the Christian community and all of its individual members are part of a people who follow God, mainly by reading and applying the Sacred Scriptures (the Bible) in their lives.

The Bible as a Story

(see 4:40) The Bible offers itself to us first and foremost as "a great narrative," not so much as a book with plenty of lists of rules we have to obey and things we have to believe in. It's a story that moves from 'creation' to 'new creation'. It's a story that "catches us up in the middle of it."

     Stories work differently from lists or rules because stories have beginnings and ends and middles as well as different phases. In particular, when we think of some of the really great stories in world literature, the story will have a different kind of "phased rhythm," that is, certain things set up the narrative; conflicts make it all difficult and tense; other events seem to make it even worse; when things seem to be improving, some other complication happens and makes things go awry ... Finally though, there's often some resolution which leads us to an ending, an end that might also be a new beginning... This is how interesting stories work.

     When you take the Bible with its two bookends of 'creation' to 'new creation' and all sorts of things going on in-between--particularly the story of Israel and, especially, the story of Jesus--it's helpful to see it "as a play in five acts." (~6:03)

The First and Second Acts: Creation then Human Rebellion and Arrogance

The first act is creation itself. Christianity and Judaism affirm that a good God created a good world. This (our world) is a good place and a good place to be. It's not trash; it's not rubbish; God is not going to get rid of it. But this good world is put into the care of human beings who are called to reflect God's image into the world. That's an incredible vocation: to be God's image, bearing God’s reflection into the world and reflecting the praises of creation back to God himself.

     That's the first act. If we get that wrong, for instance, if we mistakenly think that humans were put in the garden--such as, as a sort of test to see if they can get 10 out of 10, if not they were in deep trouble--we would distort all the other things that come after. 

     So if we start with this good world and God giving humans responsibility for it, then Act 2 is where it all horribly goes wrong. In the narrative structure of Genesis 3-11, we see the story going from human rebellion to the arrogance of empire.

The Third and Fourth Acts: Israel - Jesus

Act 3 (which runs longer) goes from the call of Abraham right up to before the birth of Jesus. Act 3 is made up in a big way of the story of Israel, the nation and the people chosen by God. Unfortunately, lots of Christians treat that as a miscellaneous collection of stories, ideas, principles, prophecies, ideals, examples of people getting it right or wrong, ... and, of course, all that is there. But the story of Israel means what it means as Act 3 in our five-part play.

     Act 4 is Jesus himself -- Jesus who draws Israel's story into its climax and does for Israel and for the world, what the world could not do for itself. If we look at the gospels, each one of the gospels in its own way begins by hooking the story that it's telling into the story of Israel. Take Matthew telling the genealogy from Abraham to Jesus, for instance; or John opening with those echoes of Genesis 1. The gospel writers themselves are telling us that the story they're relating doesn't stand by itself . Rather, it's the climactic act of this drama.

     But then again, the gospels themselves end with the death and resurrection of Jesus, not with the sense of 'Oh that's solved it all and there's nothing more to happen', rather with this strange new vocation--the renewal of the original human vocation: that those who follow Jesus are to be equipped with his Spirit, to be God's 'new creation' people; they are people who are put right so that the world may be put right.

     When we get that vision, we not only have a way to read the Bible but we also have an extraordinary energy for the mission of the people of God in the world. This is what it means to be renewed human beings.

Some Concrete Suggestions for Bible Reading and Living in the “Fifth Act”

When I (NT Wright) read the Bible and when I encourage others to read the Bible, I say, read it in great swaths, large chunks. Only then could we get an idea of the "big picture," "the big story". We humans are hardwired to do story. 

That's how you need to read the Bible.

     And then, going further, we also need to focus in on the details of the biblical story because every little bit needs working, needs fresh understanding. But the main thing is to understand those five acts, particularly, where we fit in – and it is within the fifth act – We are supposed to be fifth act people for the sake of the world, indwelt by the Spirit so that the story from 'creation' to 'new creation' can go forward and we'll be able to play our part within it.

     So when we think of ourselves as Bible-readers reading this “five-act play,” we find that we're in a very odd moment in the play because the fifth act isn't scripted yet. That is to say, we've got some strong clues as to where it's supposed to end. If you look at Revelation 21, 22, the picture there isn't as many Christians imagine--saved souls going to heaven. Rather, it is of the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth. We have a sense that the ultimate new creation is God's sphere and our sphere, heaven and earth, joined together. We're not fully there yet; it's happened in Jesus. It's happening through the Spirit but it hasn't fully happened yet and we are called to be people to live between one and the other.