ROCCA DI PAPA, Italy (AP) 鈥 The findings of an initial expert report were astonishing: One of the 20th century鈥檚 revered Catholic leaders, who built an international movement of community care for people with intellectual disabilities, perverted Catholic doctrine about Jesus and Mary to justify his own sexual compulsions and abuse women.
The findings of a second report were even worse: The movement he created had at its core a secret, mystical-sexual 鈥渟ect,鈥 and was founded for the precise purpose of hiding the sect鈥檚 deviant activities from church authorities.
The about Jean Vanier and the L鈥橝rche federation he founded have rocked the group to its core, all the more because L'Arche itself commissioned independent scholars to investigate after receiving a first complaint from a victim a few years before . It鈥檚 the latest case of a Catholic giant, considered a living saint by his admirers and eulogized as a 鈥済reat鈥 Christian by Pope Francis, falling to revelations that he abused his power to sexually exploit women under his spiritual sway.
L鈥橝rche鈥檚 national and regional leaders have been meeting for the past week in the hills outside Rome for the first time since the latest revelations to chart a path forward, now that their official history has been shown to be a lie and their hero-founder Vanier a narcissistic and delusional abuser. Emotions were still raw, as L鈥橝rche鈥檚 most devoted staff processed the gravity of Vanier鈥檚 deceptions and what it means for the organization鈥檚 future, according to interviews at the retreat with The Associated Press.
鈥淚 believed in something, in a vision that then is revealed to you and you鈥檙e told it鈥檚 not like that,鈥 said Azucena Bustamante, who oversees five L鈥橝rche communities in Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. 鈥淚t does frustrate me 鈥 the damage it has caused to a lot of people who believed in this, and then found out everything we were made to believe, it鈥檚 a lie.鈥
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Vanier, a former 好色tv and Royal Navy officer, founded L鈥橝rche in 1964 in northern France. He initially invited two intellectually disabled men to live with him, then built the utopian-style, Catholic-inspired community into an international movement bringing people with and without disabilities to live together in a spirit of mutual respect.
Born to socially prominent, religiously devout parents 鈥 his father was governor general of Canada 鈥 Vanier arrived at his calling after having joined a spiritual community, L鈥橢au Vive, in 1950 that was founded by a French Dominican priest, the Rev. Thomas Philippe.
According to the investigative reports, it was at L鈥橢au Vive that Vanier fell under Philippe鈥檚 spell and was initiated into the priest鈥檚 mystical-sexual practices.
Philippe developed his twisted theology after experiencing what he called a mystical 鈥済race鈥 one night in 1938 in Rome, while looking at a fresco of the Madonna in the church atop the Spanish Steps. Over time, the 鈥済races鈥 came to involve sexual gratification with women that both Philippe and Vanier justified by claiming that Jesus and Mary were involved in similarly incestuous sexual relationships.
The Vatican was informed of Philippe鈥檚 deviant practices by two victims in 1952; four years later it sanctioned Philippe for 鈥渇alse mysticism.鈥 The Vatican forbade him from public or private ministry, ordered L鈥橢au Vive dissolved and its members forbidden from reconstituting the community.
But Philippe, Vanier and the women they had manipulated disobeyed, and regularly met in secret, according to private correspondence and church archives only recently made available to the L鈥橝rche-commissioned researchers.
Over time, Philippe resumed his priestly ministry as his Dominican superiors ignored the Vatican sanctions, at which point Vanier, a layman, founded L鈥橝rche. The study commission concluded in its January report that Vanier did so as a 鈥渟creen鈥 to hide the reuniting of the original L鈥橢au Vive group, even though there was also a sincere commitment to help people who otherwise would have been institutionalized.
The study commission identified at least 25 women whom Vanier abused, none of them intellectually disabled. It determined that Vanier and Philippe鈥檚 deviant practices didn鈥檛 extend beyond the core 鈥渟ect鈥 at the original community in northern France. But it called for vigilance, especially in the way authority and power are exercised in L'Arche's more than 150 communities in 37 countries.
L鈥橝rche鈥檚 leaders have apologized to the victims, thanked them for their courage in coming forward, and assumed responsibility for not having spotted the abuses earlier. They say they questioned Vanier repeatedly as soon as the first victims came forward, as well as what he knew about Philippe鈥檚 1956 Holy Office condemnation, but that he lied to them.
The nearly 900-page forensic history of the scandal is remarkable, providing perhaps the best documented case of a phenomenon that has existed in the Catholic Church for centuries but is : spiritual charlatans using false mysticism to manipulate their victims and abuse them sexually.
Significantly, L鈥橝rche was able to obtain a summary report of Phillipe鈥檚 1956 canonical trial, which shows the Vatican was well-versed in the dynamics of abuse of power over women, decades before the #MeToo movement put it in the spotlight.
But the researchers, who hailed from a variety of academic disciplines, blamed the Vatican鈥檚 secrecy in handling the Philippe case for laying the groundwork for L鈥橝rche's scandal. They found that no one except a few Vatican and Dominican superiors knew of Philippe's deviance or his sanctions, 鈥減recisely what allowed him to maintain his reputation for holiness and to rewrite history as he pleased.鈥
One of the Vatican's top experts in abuse prevention, the Rev. Hans Zollner, praised L'Arche for its 鈥渇earless鈥 courage in exposing the painful truth about its past and said the phenomenon of spiritual gurus misusing their authority can't be ignored any longer by the church.
鈥淪ome time back we did not speak about the abuse of power as the root cause of basically every type of abuse, be it sexual, be psychological, be it spiritual," he said. 鈥淏ut it has become clear that this is something that we need to engage further,鈥 said Zollner, who runs an institute at the Pontifical Gregorian University that trains church personnel on preventing abuse.
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The L鈥橝rche community on Rome鈥檚 outskirts was buzzing with activity on a recent weekday: After nearly three years of pandemic lockdown, the ceramics studio had recently reopened, volunteers were helping some of the 19 live-in residents decorate Easter baskets and the gardening team was busy recycling wood chips.
Here, where Pope Francis visited in 2016, the revelations of Vanier and L鈥橝rche鈥檚 origins have hit longtime staffers hard, though there is no questioning of the fundamentals of the mission, said Loredana Moretti, a 35-year veteran of L'Arche's Il Chicco community and now on its leadership team.
鈥淔or sure the investigation shocked all of us at the start,鈥 said Moretti, adding that she now realizes Vanier epitomized a type of charismatic leader: "extreme in the good and in the bad.鈥
鈥淲hat鈥檚 important is to not make a myth or idealize anyone, including our founder. If we made a myth out of him, we were wrong,鈥 she said.
Such soul-searching was the order of business at the L鈥橝rche leadership retreat a short distance away. It was held in a converted monastery in the hills overlooking Lake Albano, within view of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo across the lake.
L鈥橝rche leaders were tackling big issues. How to tell its foundational story, now that it wasn鈥檛 just about helping disabled people as Vanier claimed. How are power and authority exercised, given the risk that Vanier鈥檚 methods trickled down to the next generation. How does L鈥橝rche move forward with its unique spirituality, given Vanier鈥檚 writings were found to be problematic once details of his secret life were uncovered.
鈥淎s a whole body, the question we have is: Do we tell our story now? What does it look like? It's a broken story," said Stacy Cates-Carney, L鈥橝rche鈥檚 vice international leader. She said the revelations had 鈥渟hattered鈥 L'Arche's understanding of its origins.
Regular audits are now planned to ensure L鈥橝rche鈥檚 safeguarding practices are being implemented. Reviews are under way to ensure staffers鈥 professional, personal and spiritual needs are being met appropriately. And for now, L鈥橝rche staff are being given time to talk and process the revelations.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in a stage of grief,鈥 Cates-Carney said. 鈥淎nd in grief, people move through that really differently.鈥
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
