TROSLY-BREUIL (FRANCE)
Wartburg Watch [Raleigh NC]
October 11, 2024
By Darlene Parsons
“If you take one thing away from today, I want you to know that I am a man with Down syndrome, and my life is worth living.”– John Franklin “Frank” Stephens, Athlete.
Note: Much of this post is historical, and past quotes represent viewpoints from that time. I believe today, the term “intellectual difference” is more acceptable. Please feel free to add your understanding of the correct terminology.
Warning: Descriptor of clergy abuse
It’s not the theology; it’s the sexual preference/propensity of the offender.
Recently, I have been asked to articulate what it is about the theology that leads a clergy member to abuse. Maybe the right question is not being asked. The former Boy Scouts of America had over 82,000 victims of abuse. Do we ask, “What was it about learning to tie knots that leads a man to abuse a Scout?” The same thing goes for K-12 educators. Do we ask, “What is it about teaching math that led to 9.6% of K-12 students being sexually abused by an educator?”
In 2017, there were 747,408 sex offenders registered in the United States. More impressively, in 2020, this NIH study estimated that:
Approximately 1 to 5% of the male population is estimated to have pedophilia [1,2,3], that is, a sexual interest in children.
There were 162.7 million men in 2020. That means there were 1.6-8.1 million who experienced some form of pedophilia.
I hasten to add that not all of these folks will offend. In fact,
an estimated 40–60 percent of sexual offenses against children are not committed by people with pedophilic interests
What about the number of psychopaths in the US? The general number quoted by the NIH in this study is 4.5% of men and women, although it is higher in men.
The bottom line is this.
There are a bunch (a “scientific” term ) of people in the US who, at any given time, may be sexual offenders.
Sexual offenders choose churches because the environment demands respect and submission to authority, and it’s not hard to get a job.
In evangelical circles, one doesn’t even have to go to college. After high school, Robert Morris had no discernable education, a big church, and even started Kings University. Today, one need not even think up a sermon. They are easily purchased online. Morris started their churches from nothing. Such pastors can also dream up their theology, which might benefit their sexual preferences.
On the surface, they are caring for the disabled, underneath sexually abusing women: The hidden and despicable lives of Thomas Philippe and Jean Varnier.
I am a fan of Henri Nouwen. From Wikipedia:
Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen[pronunciation?] (January 24, 1932 – September 21, 1996) was a Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. His interests were rooted primarily in psychology, pastoral ministry, spirituality, social justice and community. Over the course of his life, Nouwen was heavily influenced by the work of Anton Boisen, Thomas Merton, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, and Jean Vanier.
After nearly two decades of teaching at academic institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School and Harvard Divinity School, Nouwen went on to work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
I believe that those with intellectual differences are gifts to all of us. So, I was impressed with Nouwen, who chose to live with them in an intentional community. He often traveled and spoke with one of the residents.
As I read more by Nouwen, I found myself reading about the life of his mentor, Jean Vanier, who did so much for those with intellectual disabilities.
Jean Vanier CC GOQ (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ vanje], September 10, 1928 – May 7, 2019) was a Canadian Catholic philosopher and theologian. In 1964, he founded L’Arche, an international federation of communities spread over 37 countries for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them. In 1971, he co-founded Faith and Light with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, which also works for people with developmental disabilities, their families, and friends in over 80 countries. He continued to live as a member of the original L’Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France, until his death.
Over the years he wrote 30 books on religion, disability, normality, success, and tolerance.[1]
I was so taken by his devotion to caring for people with disabilities. Pope Francis honored him for caring for “those the world discarded.”
A week before his death, Pope Francis called Vanier to thank him for his years of ministry and service.[26]Following his death, Pope Francis, who was flying back to Rome from North Macedonia, told a group of journalists, “I want to express my gratitude for his testimony” and said Vanier could read and interpret not only the Christian gaze on “the mystery of death, of the cross, of suffering”, but also “the mystery of those who are discarded by the world”.[27]
Jean Varnier met “porno-mystic” Thomas Philippe.
Thomas Philippe was a priest who educated Jean Varnier about the plight of those with intellectual disabilities who were institutionalized. This would lead Varnier to start the first of many L’Arche communities, which stressed that people with disabilities were to be teachers, not burdens.
According to Wikipedia:
In 1964, through Vanier’s friendship with a priest named Thomas Philippe, he became aware of the plight of thousands of people institutionalized with developmental disabilities. Vanier invited two men, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, to leave the institutions where they resided and live with him in Trosly-Breuil, France. Their time together led to the establishment of L’Arche at Trosly-Breuil, a community where people with disabilities live with those who care for them.[12][13] Since that time a network of 150 L’Arche communities have been established in 38 countries.[10] A governing philosophy of the communities is Vanier’s belief that people with disabilities are teachers, rather than burdens bestowed upon families.[14]
Until the late 1990s, Vanier carried the responsibility for L’Arche in Trosly-Breuil in France, and for the International Federation of L’Arche. He then stepped down to spend more time counselling, encouraging, and accompanying the people who come to live in L’Arche as assistants to those with disabilities. Vanier established 147 L’Arche communities in 37 countries around the world which have become places of pilgrimage for those involved.[15][16]
How do the beautiful and ugly develop at the same time?
In 2023, The Daily Compass posted abuse and ‘porno-mysticism’: the French scandal that explains Rupnik. Fr. Thomas Phillipe:
The founder of the Communauté Saint-Jean, Fr Dominique-Marie Philippe
More importantly, he had what he said was a mystical experience and discovered (Folks, always be careful when something new is discovered about Jesus.):
The Dominican friar, according to his own testimony, had experienced, seven years earlier, an unspecified ‘very obscure grace’, a presumed union with the Blessed Virgin Mary, which also involved his ‘sexual organs’. From this experience, Fr Thomas developed the intention to allow his future spiritual daughters to relive the same ‘grace’ through him. This ‘privilege’ later involved several nuns from two contemplative Dominican monasteries (in the one at Bouvines, the superior was Fr Thomas’ sister), three Carmelites, and finally the religious community and some members of l’Eau Vive.
And an abortion with bizarre results.
…The relationship between the two was known both to the superior and to Fr Thomas’ uncle, Fr Pierre-Thomas Dehau. The young nun was urged to have an abortion, and the dead baby was baptised and venerated as a relic until 1952, as a sign of the special mission that Our Lady would entrust to Fr Thomas and the initiates.
Let me clarify: He discovered that Jesus and Mary had some mystical sexual union. In 1950, Jean Varnier joined with Thomas Phillipe.
Jean Vanier was initiated into what Emprise calls ‘mystical-spiritual practice’ with a spiritual daughter of Fr Thomas, Jacqueline d’Halluin. In 1952, the Holy Office decided to intervene, first imposing on Fr Thomas to no longer have any relationship with members of l’Eau Vive and banning him four years later from exercising his priestly ministry, both in public and in private.
Although the priest was removed from his duties, his clerical status was not removed, and his relationship with Varnier grew closer.
However, it is not clear why the Holy Office did not proceed to dismiss the Dominican friar from the clerical state, given the seriousness of the facts committed and the monstrosity of the “mystical” justifications. A mistake that would cost dearly. In the meantime, both Jean Vanier and the other members of l’Eau Vive continue their contacts with Fr Thomas, despite the fact that the Holy Office had forbidden any relationship between Fr Thomas and the members of l’Eau Vive. Vanier, in particular, relied on Thomas and his brother, Marie-Dominique, for his doctorate in moral philosophy.
Varnier was so enmeshed in this perverse theology that:
Vanier argued even more clearly for “two distinct, specifically different moralities”, namely that of the virtues and that of the spiritual man, moved by the Spirit; the common morality and the morality of the mystics.
And there were about 25 victims of Varnier. Christianity Today reported in Report: Jean Vanier’s L’Arche Hid ‘Mystical-Sexual’ Sect for Decades.
Of the 25 women who experienced “a sexual act or intimate gesture” from Vanier, 14 remained members of L’Arche.
A synthesis of the commission’s report details the physical and sexual “prayer” Vanier engaged in with women:
From the end of the 1960s to the 2010s, the posture regularly described is that of Jean Vanier (this is also the case with Thomas Philippe and [his brother and fellow priest] Marie-Dominique Philippe) on his knees, his head resting on the bare chest of the “accompanied” person.
Tactile gestures intensify during prayer and accompaniment (holding hands, heads close together, foreheads touching, hugging each other). The different stories evoke a similar range of touching gestures, covering in particular “kisses on the mouth each time more intense, more passionate,” “voluptuous, avid,” and caresses on the erogenous zones of both partners, particularly the female’s breast.
In several cases, the touching progressed to acts of sexual assault. Partial nudity, the absence of coitus as well as the spiritual justification of sexual abuse led Jean Vanier to consider that these were non-sexual practices.
…The women who initially spoke up about abuse by Vanier described how he considered sexual acts as a part of spiritual direction, allegedly saying lines like, “This is not us, this is Mary and Jesus,” and “It is Jesus who loves you through me.”
Yet?
During his lifetime, Vanier was renowned for his faith, his gentleness, and his embodiment of friendship to those with disabilities. He was awarded the 2015 Templeton Prize
Before the final questions, it is essential to note that there does not seem to be any indication that those with disabilities were abused. Also, Nouwen is not suspected of being involved in this aspect of Varnier’s life.
The question(s) for discussion.
- Did the theology cause the abuse?
- Did priests’ need for chastity cause the development of a theology that gave them an out?
- So much good came out of Philippe and Varnier’s life. How do we reconcile this?
- This “secret” was hidden for decades. Did the fact they hid it indicate they knew it was nonsense?
- How did Nouwen avoid Varnier’s porno-theology? Varnier was his mentor.
Today, L’Arche exists in 135 communities in 37 countries and 5 continents!