By Canadian Press

Jean Vanier, Catholic hero to developmentally disabled, dies

May 9, 2019 | 5:58 AM

PARIS — Jean Vanier, whose charity work helped improve conditions for the developmentally disabled in Canada and multiple other countries over the past half-century, has died at 90.

A charity he founded, L’Arche, said Vanier died Tuesday in Paris after suffering from thyroid cancer.

Vanier, son of former governor general Georges P. Vanier, worked as a Canadian navy officer and professor before turning to Catholic-inspired charity work.

Pope Francis was informed of Vanier’s death and is praying for him and the community, according to Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti.

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A visit to a psychiatric hospital prompted him to found L’Arche in 1964 as an alternative living environment where those with developmental disabilities could be full-fledged participants in the community instead of patients.

The first Canadian community, L’Arche Daybreak, was founded in Richmond Hill, Ont., and 29 communities are spread across Canada from Comox Valley, B.C., to Cape Breton, N.S. Worldwide, there are 154 residential communities in 38 countries on five continents.

Trish Glennon, L’Arche Daybreak’s community leader, remembers Vanier as a man of tremendous presence, despite his deep humility.

“He was a tall man, but there was something about his presence and ability when you met him, you felt like you were really connected,” she told The Canadian Press. “He wanted to know you, he wanted to know about you, and there was an energy about him, and you felt it.”

She said his greatest legacy is in inspiring people to reach out and connect with those who are different from themselves. In doing so, he contributed to our understanding of what it means to be human, she said.

“He often talked about the world as being a really broken place with lots of division,” she said. “But the experience of L’Arche is about that experience of bringing differences together to find a way to build community, to be together, to find belonging in the world.”

Canadian political leaders as well as the Toronto archdiocese also paid tribute to Vanier on Tuesday for his work on behalf of some of society’s most vulnerable citizens.

“He made our world a better, more inclusive place through (L’Arche), and his legacy will continue to inspire us all,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter. 

Pierre Jacquand, who leads L’Arche’s facilities in France, said Vanier felt a calling to defend the most marginalized.

“He gave them a voice,” Jacquand said, adding that over time, his work helped inspire broader change in how France addresses the needs of those with developmental disorders including Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorders.

He also travelled the world to encourage dialogue across religions, and was awarded the 2015 Templeton Prize for spiritual work, as well as being named to the Order of Canada and France’s Legion of Honour. He was the subject of a documentary shown at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival called “Jean Vanier, the Sacrament of Tenderness.”

“Before being Christians or Jews or Muslims, before being Americans or Russians or Africans, before being generals or priests, rabbis or imams, before having visible or invisible disabilities, we are all human beings with hearts capable of loving,” Vanier said in remarks prepared for the Templeton Prize announcement in London, England.

Vanier handed over leadership of L’Arche decades ago but continued to live in the first community centre he founded north of Paris.

He had no direct descendants but left a legacy in many countries, and “his family is everywhere now,” Jacquand said.

Vanier was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the fourth of five children.

He received a broad education in English and French, earning a doctorate in philosophy, and living in England, France and Canada.

Vanier retained his connection to Canada and to L’Arche in later years, although his visits became less frequent as he became less inclined to travel.

In 2017, he joined up with Cardus, a Christian think tank, to appear in a series of videos to mark Canada’s 150th birthday. 

In that message, Vanier urged viewers to reach out to those around them, regardless of culture, religion or nationality, and to see them “as a brother or sister in the same, mysterious human family.”

In a 2006 talk at Concordia University in Montreal, Vanier argued that the Western culture of individualism which values beauty, money and success, also creates a gap between the healthy and the disabled.

”We have a fear of accompanying people who are weak …. They are seen as a financial and social liability,” he said.

”We see the leprosy but not the person …. We want to cure, but are we prepared to care?”

He argued that the greatest threat to peace is a widening gap between rich and poor, between strong and weak. But rather than urging people to open their wallets to the less fortunate, Vanier asked them to open their hearts.

”It’s not a question of doing something, but of recognizing that each person has a gift to give.”

Vanier said the responsibility for peace lies squarely with people, not with governments. Conflict, he told the Concordia audience, is a product of the walls we erect to protect ourselves.

”We want money, power, to walk up the ladder of privilege,” Vanier said. ”But where are we prepared to meet those with no power, money or privilege?”

A private memorial service is expected next week.

— With files from Morgan Lowrie

The Associated Press