News Archives - 2000

Jean Vanier, one of the world's most recognized and respected religious leaders and communicators, will be at Augsburg College on October 24. There will be a forum from 10:30-11:15 a.m. and then he will be the guest speaker at Chapel from 11:20-11:40 a.m. All events will take place in the Hoversten Chapel on the Augsburg College campus.

Jean Vanier profile: Vanier, born in Canada in 1928, son of the late Governor General of Canada, Georges Vanier, was educated in England and Canada. He was with the British Navy for several years and then with the Canadian Royal Navy.

In 1950, he resigned from the Navy, went to France and worked on a doctorate in philosophy, which he received from the Institut Catholique de Paris. In 1964, with Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, two men with developmental disabilities, he founded L'Arche, a community with men and women who have developmental disabilities, many coming from psychiatric centers. From this original community in France, 103 other communities have been founded throughout the world.

Vanier has said that "Our communities should be signs of joy and celebration. If we are accepted with our limitations as well as our abilities, community gradually becomes a place of liberation -- this terrible place can become one of life and growth."