L’Arche Founder Jean Vanier Has Won The Templeton Prize
May 2015
L’Arche Boston North is proud to announce that L’arche’s founder, Jean Vanier, is the 2015 Templeton Prize winner! Winning the Templeton Prize is a prestigious honor, and winners are celebrated for their impact on society and celebration of the human spirit. Jean Vanier joins an elite group of previous Templeton Prize winners, including Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama.
Through his work as the founder of L’Arche, Jean Vanier has helped create 147 L’Arche communities in 35 countries, providing homes for people with intellectual disabilities, thus enriching their lives and the lives of the people that live with them.
Upon news of winning the 2015 Templeton Prize, Jean Vanier said:
“I want to thank in a special way all those I represent here, people with intellectual disabilities of
L’Arche and Faith and Light. They have brought me so much over the past 50 years, and have
taught me more than all those teachers and professors in schools and universities that I have
attended. They have taught me about what it means to be human and about how our societies can
be transformed to become more peaceful and unified…My dream for this magnificent prize you have given me, and through me to L’Arche and Faith & Light, is for us to create spaces and opportunities for such meetings, meetings which transform hearts. Places where those caught up in the world of success and normality, and those who are in need, but who are also teachers of love and of simplicity, come together. Places where they can share together, eat together, laugh and celebrate together, weep and pray together; where the hearts of those who carry power in our society can be melted and rest; and where all together we may become a sign of peace.”
Click on a video below to learn more about Jean Vanier, his works, and what the Templeton Prize means to him.
