Community of the Word of Life suppressed yesterday
At the time of the dissolution of the Word of Life, thinking about the aftermath
During the weekend of Pentecost, former and current members of the Word of Life met at the Abbey of Andecy, the motherhouse of the community, for a last time before the effective dissolution of the private association of the faithful, which will take place on July 1, 2023. A difficult course, but necessary.
Carol had chosen All Saints' Day to put on her sister's habit. Since each consecrated member of the community of the Word of Life could choose when to return his habit, the Swiss wanted to do so on a date that made sense. “So that the dissolution is not experienced as a rupture but as a new stage in my own path to holiness."
On All Saints' Eve 2022, reciting a "Hail Mary" for each part of her habit, she removed for the last time what made her a nun in the eyes of the rest of the world: her white veil, 'on board. Then her rosary, her belt, and finally her sky blue habit. Only the light wooden cross remained. Carol then knelt down, before reciting her prayer of offering written during her time as a novitiate, which she had said every day of her 21 years in the community… and which she continues to say today.
The next day, she went to the office of Lauds, in the wooden chapel of the Abbey of Andecy where she lived with about twenty other consecrated and lay members of the Word of Life. "What do you want to be called now? they asked her, like the others before them. No more Sister Claire Elie now. If she keeps her vows private, Carol will now respond to her baptismal name. “It was one of my sufferings within the community, she says today. We wore a religious habit but, in some houses, we could not live like religious. A headband has replaced her veil.
Recognize the chaff in the middle of the wheat
Since her departure at the end of November, this is the first time that Carol has returned to the Abbey of Andecy, the mother house of the Word of Life. One year after the announcement of the dissolution of the community, on June 25, 2022, after two canonical visits having noted "serious and systemic dysfunctions since the foundation", it responded, like about 200 former members of the Word of Life, to François Touvet's invitation. The Bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne, appointed administrator of the Word of Life until its effective dissolution on July 1, 2023, wanted to bring together in Andecy those who have made the community during its 37 years of existence. , on this weekend of Pentecost 2023.
In the park surrounding the abbey, it is therefore time for a reunion, for these former and current members who, for some, had not seen each other for 20 years. A reunion that everyone also knew would be the last. “We are not here to celebrate a funeral or a party, but to renew our act of faith in the Church, announced François Touvet in the introduction to the weekend. Recognize the chaff in the middle of the wheat."
Gap between community and non-community
The process is not easy for everyone. If the decision to dissolve was expected by some, for others, the pill is still hard to swallow. Many, moreover, have not found the strength to come, still stunned by the decision, in June 2022, of the Archbishop of Brussels, Jozef de Kesel, bishop guarantor of the community.
The abuses of authority, spiritual and even sexual violence experienced by some members living within the community (called the “residential communities”) were not felt by the “non-residential communities” (serving the community without living in one of its houses), nor by the members of the sixty or so "covenant houses", small lay fraternities scattered throughout France, Belgium and Switzerland. With them, the word "mess" comes up often. "You will write that there have been beautiful fruits", we are told regularly. Because there were. At the Word of Life, some have had an experience of conversion; others have forged deep and solid friendships there. Many have found an answer to their spiritual thirst there.
Marie and her husband Jacques are among them. On learning by e-mail of the upcoming dissolution of the community, this couple responsible for a covenant house in Lille was devastated. “I felt like an orphan. I wondered what we were going to become”, explains the mother, who is also involved in the parish, for whom the “covenant houses” evenings and the summers at the Word of Life remained above all times of spiritual renewal… at miles from Carol's experience.
The former sister recounts the great spiritual and psychological suffering due to the toxic behavior of certain members in charge, who are highly appreciated outside the community. “If we expressed our suffering, we were not believed, as these people had an aura. It was a stalemate. At the time of the announcement of the dissolution, the consecrated, both general bursar and local superior, was on the verge of burnout.
Public declaration of repentance
On this Sunday of Pentecost, the members of the Word of Life go to the Basilica of Châlons-en-Champagne, an hour's drive away, for mass, as a sign of union with the Diocese. In the buses, we took out the community's songbooks: members of all ages sang refrains from Emmanuel or Chemin Neuf. At the end of the mass, during which François Touvet confirmed 60 adults, the community and the Bishop headed on foot to the Notre-Dame de l'Épine basilica, about ten kilometers away, in a pilgrimage of repentance under a blazing sun.
On the forecourt of the basilica, the Bishop of Châlons read, on his knees, a public declaration of repentance, acknowledging the serious dysfunctions of the community and the failures of the Catholic Church in its accompaniment. Around him, couples are holding hands. Others cry. Listening to the story of the ordeal of certain communities, many lay people are flabbergasted. “I never could have imagined that all of this was happening! exclaims Mary. She may remember the festivals of the families, she only remembers the smiling faces of the community. "But it's because we were sincerely happy to see them, to have a little oxygen," explains Carol.
Thinking after the event
After the shock of the announcement, you have to rest, heal your wounds... then think about the aftermath. Surrounded by a small team, François Touvet has been struggling for a year: to ensure that all former residential community members benefit from psychological and spiritual support; offer and finance skills assessments to those who wish; to accompany each one on his vocational path; make phone calls to the right, to the left to help old people find a job, housing, sometimes a residence permit; reconstruct the path of those for whom the community has not fully contributed for retirement; provide means of subsistence for the first months outside the community... "I really lived my ministry as bishop as someone who puts people back on their feet, who opens paths of life, of freedom", he confides -he.
For her part, Carol regains the inner freedom she had lost. With other community members, she goes to the Secours Catholique sale to find civilian clothes. She likes blue, plaid shirts. Like most of the other 26 consecrated women, Carol decided to seek employment. "I didn't want to go back to another community out of fear or default, but out of a real choice. »
While training is lacking for some sisters, Carol is one of the “less badly off”: her biblical and theological studies followed at the Word of Life enabled her to land a paid six-month internship as a prison chaplain in Geneva, her home town. of origin. “What I learned in the community serves me every day: listening, accompaniment, Bible sharing, being at the service of the Church, too. Thanks, among other things, to the recommendation of François Touvet, several other sisters have found employment in the Catholic Church, as hospital chaplain or assistant to a bishop.
A different situation for priests
The situation of the seven priests of the community is different: their formation in the seminary and their priestly ordination guarantee them a certain form of continuity. At the start of the school year, they will be distributed in several dioceses: Châlons-en-Champagne, Nanterre, Paris, or with the canons of Saint-Victor.
After several complicated years in houses in Switzerland and then in the Paris region, Thibault Marie first took refuge in the Abbey of Tamié to breathe, before spotting a community of apostolic canons in Normandy corresponding to his aspirations. He made a few stays at the hotel to consider a possible entry into the postulancy. Because, even for a priest, who says new community means back to square one… But the community, cautious, asks him to take more time to discern, without closing his door.
Although the young priest was convinced of his community vocation, he then contacted François Touvet again, to ask to join the diocese of Châlons, his diocese of origin, in the summer... before leaving at the beginning of Lent for three months on the Ways of Santiago. Finally, take the time to rebuild yourself, and prepare for your future ministry. On the road to Compostela, he takes several different routes: Chemin du Puy, Conques-Toulouse link, small end of the Chemin d'Arles, that of Piedmont... "I made my own way", he summarizes. As in religious life.
On July 1, this Champenois will begin a mission in the deanery of Perthois. “At the time, it was difficult to accept the decision of the Community of Canons, but I gained a lot of freedom and detachment on the paths to Compostela. Today I feel free. And that is a renewal.
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