Vanier was in Durham partly to promote his new book, Living Gently in a Violent World, co-authored with Duke Divinity professor of theological ethics Stanley Hauerwas.
Much of Vanier’s message makes the connection between loving the people whom society has cast aside as unlovable and the struggle to create a more peaceful world.
“The fundamental principle of peace is a belief that each person is important,” Vanier writes in Living Gently.
“People with disabilities remain the most oppressed people of this world,” said Vanier, a tall man with a voice so soft it is often hard to hear. “Many feel that they are not entirely human.”
Jean Vanier is a living saint in every sense of the word. If I may borrow from this Sunday’s gospel, none of us is worthy to tie or untie his shoelaces. Jean, however, just like his Master, would probably insist on tying ours. In Saturday’s Globe and Mail there was a fascinating exchange of letters between Vanier and Globe columnist Ian Brown about the abortion issue. You can find it at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081128.wvanier29/BNStory/National/
Jean Vanier has made a remarkable job of building his own life in what might otherwise have been the shadow of his very famous — in Canada, at least — father. Georges Vanier (1888-1967) was a soldier (general and founder of the widely respected 22nd Regiment), diplomat (Jean was born in Switzerland), and the first francophone Governor General of Canada (1958-67).