Regarding Walter Hughes’ Article on Jean Vanier Scandal
Hugh Williams, Debec, NB
Volume 39 Issue 1,2,&3 | Posted: April 5, 2024
The Editor:
I read three articles from your recent issue of ICN. The first was Walter Hughes’ on the “Jean Vanier scandal”. I know Walter personally and so have a sense of what must have been involved in preparing the piece.
For me, it is a very much needed piece on an area that I expect is very very difficult to write about – it is on what I call the ‘pathology’ regarding the treatment of sexuality in Catholicism.
Walter, as a layman, treatment of it was done with intelligence, balance and even a touch of wisdom. I say ‘pathology’ because for many, if not most of us, as Catholics our sexuality has been and perhaps still is a source of ‘guilt’ and ‘confusion’ … we really haven’t quite figured it out. As for Vanier, and the so-called ‘scandal’ – witness his almost total removal from Catholic Book sites, etc. when at one time his personage and writings had almost too much exposure. I don’t believe this total removal is justified and I believe Walter hints at this. Vanier is clearly a sinner like the rest of us, but he is not a sex abuser or criminal. He may have imprudently and immorally exploited his charismatic leadership for personal advantage, but these were not criminal moves.
I’m not trying to make excuses for him, yet I do feel that as Walter’s piece carefully shows us, almost implicitly … what we have with Vanier’s case is a swinging between extremes – from the angelized ‘living saint’ to the posthumously shunned sexual pariah. Vanier’s role in, and responsibility for, this swing is not insignificant but neither is it the sole justifying cause for this swing between extremes (the case of Fr. T. Philippe as Walter points out is very different and much more serious). Here we have someone who transgressed the bounds of basic doctrine, someone who needed disciplining and even censoring by the proper Church authorities; but who in time was lost track of and who continued to do damage.
Vanier clearly exercised poor judgment as Walter’s article points out, regarding his close friend Fr. Philippe. But it also seems he has suffered somewhat from guilt by association.
Overall another excellent issue in much needed but rare Catholic journalism.
Hugh Williams,
Debec, NB
Hugh Williams, Debec, NB