Distressing legacy of sexual abusers in Catholic literature
Booksellers and publishers are divided over the works of abusers
What to do with books by Marie-Dominique Philippe, Jean Vanier or Tony Anatrella, all of whom have been accused of sexual violence and spiritual abuse? Booksellers and publishers hesitate between ethical and commercial considerations. Some are also questioning their responsibilities.
At the entrance to La Procure, rue de Mézières, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the two long reports recently published on the abuses committed by brothers Marie-Dominique and Thomas Philippe and by Jean Vanier are prominently displayed. Like the rest of the Church, the small world of Catholic publishing was stunned by the revelation of these abuses committed by personalities long adulated by a significant part of the faithful.
"We were hit hard, with a particular sensitivity, since we were offering in our shelves the works of the Philippe brothers, especially Marie-Dominique, the writings of Thomas not being so numerous, and of Jean Vanier," says Mathilde Mahieux, who has been in charge of the religious sector of the bookshop since 2010. Very quickly, the decision was taken to remove from the shelves the works of personalities accused of abuse, "as soon as the condemnation is canonical" or "sufficiently substantiated".
Stopping a "misleading" text
At the much smaller Procure de Bordeaux, Clotilde Gaborit followed the same policy. At the time of the revelation of the accusations against Jean Vanier, the bookseller had just read his last two books, published in 2019. "I really felt cheated. I said to myself that, insofar as he was using his texts and his charisma to mask his actions, withdrawing his books from sale was a way of stopping this text from shielding his misdeeds. A book without its readers is nothing.
The same line of conduct applies to Joseph Challier, who is responsible for the Emmanuel bookshop in Lyon, the bookshop for the Paray-le-Monial sessions and the online bookshop. It even happens that the bookseller anticipates certain revelations because he has been made aware of a canonical, journalistic or police investigation before it is published, and withdraws the author from the shelves. "As long as the investigation is ongoing, we don't make a final decision, but we discard it. And often, the facts are confirmed.
Booksellers "not there to judge"
If establishments choose not to renew their stocks, some books may still resurface. Customers are always free to order them; if they don't come to pick them up, the copies are put back on the shelf. As long as someone orders in good conscience, we are not here to judge," explains Mathilde Mahieux. You may also need to read to understand or to detect something.
The day after the Paris diocese condemned the priest and psychotherapist Tony Anatrella in mid-January for allegedly sexually assaulting patients, the Parisian bookshop was challenged on Twitter about the availability of one of its books on gender theory on its shelves.
The copy was immediately withdrawn. We can't refuse to sell if the book is available," says Mathilde Mahieux. It is also up to the publisher, when he keeps these works available, to do the work.
The problem of "freedom of expression"
Among these publishers, opinions are far from unanimous. "Today, it's more intuitive than anything else: books by problematic authors are being 'killed'," says Antoine Bellier, publisher at Salvator. There is no collective decision to destroy stocks. On the Salvator website, which has just been bought by the Première Partie group, the names of Jean Vanier and Michel Santier still appear in the list of published authors, but their books, which have sold several thousand copies, are no longer displayed.
"This is a question that is not taken for granted in publishing because of freedom of expression. The censorship reflex may seem a bit shocking," notes Marc Leboucher, also a publisher at Salvator. If the books have not been simply withdrawn from sale, they are no longer promoted. More recently, the publication of a new book by a priest "who is a publishing success" was cancelled in 2022 after the priest in question informed the publisher of the canonical investigation against him, says Antoine Bellier.
Just checking "that the book is not pernicious"
Other publishers are more sceptical. L'Échelle de Jacob published two books by Tony Anatrella in 2014. Salvator, which distributes this small publishing house, asked its director, Pierre Sanchez, to withdraw them from its catalogue after the first sanctions from the Paris diocese in 2018. The publisher says it "suffered" from this decision. He has indeed "kept good friendly relations" with Tony Anatrella, "a remarkably intelligent man", and believes that he has been "thrown to the lions by a cowardly Episcopate". He would have become a target to "shoot" because he is the representative "in the eyes of many people of the man of the Church who is opposed to homosexuality".
At the Pierre Téqui bookshop, which is a publisher, printer and bookseller on rue de Mézières, a few metres from La Procure, Tristan de Carné assumes that he has not changed anything in his "editorial practices": "We check that it conforms to doctrine, we are Catholic publishers. Thus, two works co-authored by Tony Anatrella and two others written by Marie-Dominique Philippe, published by the publisher's own Saint Paul Publishing House, are still on sale.
According to Tristan de Carné, if the book itself is not "pernicious", i.e. contrary to the Church's magisterium, "there is no reason for it to be withdrawn from the catalogue" and publishers do not have to "howl with the wolves". The publisher has, however, recently written to the St John's Community to find out if any of Marie-Dominique Philippe's books are "erroneous", in which case they will be withdrawn. "There is undeniable fruit. If the books are good, if they have brought something at the level of doctrine, it is perhaps a shame to remove them."
The responsibility of the communities
At the end of 2019, the second session of the General Chapter of the Brothers of St John decided that the books of Marie-Dominique Philippe would no longer be put on sale in the convents, "while waiting for a discernment to be made". This decision was extended at the end of the second session of the General Chapter in October 2022.
In L'Arche, an "internal note on the use of Jean Vanier's writings and texts", sent in January 2021 to the presidents of the communities, suggests adding "inside each book by Jean Vanier and in each bibliographic work about him" a short note explaining the sexual abuse and violence committed by the founder of L'Arche.
It's very complicated to separate the wheat from the chaff," says Anaïs de Montjoye, press officer for l'Arche in France. The recently published Arche report highlights the existence of a double reading that is only accessible to the initiated.
The abuse crisis forces us to rethink our roles
Beyond the books already published, the abuse crisis has led some publishers and booksellers to rethink their role. At Salvator, Antoine Bellier stresses the "illusion of omnipotence" that publishing books can generate in authors. "We have a responsibility in the starification of authors in the media, we can lead them to a form of narcissism. His colleague Marc Leboucher adds that the scale of the revelations has encouraged publishers to "give a voice to people who are victims of abuse, to encourage lucidity and investigation."
At the beginning, all the books that came out on the subject came from general publishers," notes Joseph Challier, a bookseller at Emmanuel. Gradually, there has been a growing awareness among some Christian publishers. He himself opened a dedicated section in his Lyon bookshop, which was "very badly perceived during the first two years", before meeting a real demand from readers. At La Procure in Bordeaux, Clotilde Gaborit also took the initiative of creating a "crisis in the Church" section. The book Prière de ne pas abuser by Father Patrick C. Goujon, who was himself abused by a priest when he was a child, has thus "not moved from the table" since its publication at Seuil in October 2021. Several copies are bought every month.
Rue de Mézières, in Paris, La Procure is preparing to organise, on 15 March, an evening on abuse in the Church, in the presence of historians Antoine Mourges and Tangi Cavalin and sociologist Claire Vincent-Mory, three of the authors of the recently published reports on the Philippe brothers and Jean Vanier, as well as Véronique Margron, president of the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France (Corref). A similar evening had already taken place in 2019, after the first revelations about the Brothers of St John. "There were more than 200 of us at the bookshop," recalls Mathilde Mahieux. It was the ultimate expression of our profession: giving voice to authors and trying to provide elements of response."
Cathcon: this is reminiscent of the poisoned artistic legacy of abusers such as Father Rupnik or Stanley Spencer.
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