Jean Vanier, the Canadian theologian and humanitarian who founded L’Arche, has entered hospice care. He had a heart attack in 2017 and has devoted most of his time to rest since then. Until recently he lived at the first L’Arche community in Oise, France.
Vanier, 90, founded L’Arche, a ministry among people with developmental disabilities, in 1964. He founded a similar ministry, Faith and Light, in 1971. He is credited with founding 154 L’Arche communities in 38 countries and 1,450 Faith and Light communities in 83 countries.
He has written 30 books on faith, disability, normalcy, success and tolerance. In The Gospel of John: The Gospel of Relationship, Vanier proposed that Lazarus, who lived with his sisters Mary and Martha of Bethany, may have been disabled.
“Today I have no future, but I am happy in the present, at every moment,” he told the news site Aleteia in September.
John Martin
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
