L'Arche founder to gain Templeton award

Jean Vanier will receive $2.1 million for his work with intellectually disabled people

Jean Vanier.

This year, a prolific writer and theologian will be honoured at a prestigious ceremony at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London May 18. The B.C. Catholic's Alistair Burns reported March 23:

"To become fully human is to let down the barriers, to open up and discover that every person is beautiful," Jean Vanier said in a statement.

Vanier convinced two mentally disabled men to live with him in a French village, Trosly-Breuil, 95 kilometres north of Paris, in the 1960s. "For many years these wonderful people were seen as 'errors,' or as the fruit of evil committed by their parents or ancestors," Vanier said. Many disabled children were "terribly humiliated and rejected."

He went on to found L'Arche, an organization that is now active in 35 countries. A full video of the award ceremony will be available starting May 19. Videos of Jean Vanier answering several "big questions" are available here.

With files from Alistair Burns.