Catholic Church Roots of Abuse in L'Arche

Comments on the report “Control and Abuse Investigation on Thomas Philippe, Jean Vanier and L’Arche (1950-2019)”

By: Ovide Bastien

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

"Ovide, read the report Control and Abuse Investigation on Thomas Philippe, Jean Vanier and L’Arche (1950-2019). It is an excellent report. It is even more impressive than the McCarrick Report, told me François Gloutnay of Présence magazine in a telephone conversation.
I had just sent an e-mail to François congratulating him, not only for the article he had just published on this report, but also for all the others he had had the courage to write in the past on the Catholic Church’s clergy abuse crisis. Articles which are obviously not making him popular in many Catholic circles (quite the contrary!). But articles which, by tenaciously giving voice to the thousands of victims who have been silenced by the Church for decades, bear witness to fundamental evangelical values.
Following our phone conversation, I immediately immersed myself in the report. First, the 126-page synthesis, then the 900-page report itself.
Like that of François, my first impression was extremely positive. The report was produced by scholars of different disciplines, who are independent of L'Arche International, and who have conducted a two-year long investigation. And one can only admire the effort of transparency demonstrated by this institution that has contributed so greatly to the well-being of so many disadvantaged people throughout the world.
However, I make a few critical comments on this report. Comments whose purpose is to bring L'Arche to identify more clearly the properly Catholic Church roots of the abuse perpetrated for decades by its two founders, rather than focusing primarily on the behavior of a sect based on the erotic mystique developed by a Dominican priest.