(OSV News) — Three decades after his death, Father Henri Nouwen — spirituality author, priest, psychologist and pastor to persons with disabilities — “remains deeply relevant” to Catholic and Christian pastoral theology, said experts on his life and work.

The Dutch-born priest died of a sudden heart attack Sept. 21, 1996, in his native Netherlands. Though only 64 at the time, he had written 39 books that have so far been translated into more than 35 languages, with over 8.5 million copies sold, according to the Henri Nouwen Society.

Among his best-known works are “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” inspired by Rembrandt’s painting of the Gospel parable (Lk 15:11-32); “The Wounded Healer,” which stressed the recognition that woundedness can become a source of connection and shared restoration; and “Life of the Beloved,” which explored the spiritual life in language accessible to a broad audience.

Father Nouwen blended a profoundly personal spirituality with psychological studies, contemplation, academic dialogue, missionary experience and pastoral closeness to others — especially persons with disabilities, with whom he lived during his final years.

‘Complex individual’ who lived with ‘transparent honesty’

Scholar and Nouwen biographer Michael W. Higgins described the late priest as “a complex individual” who lived “with a wonderfully transparent honesty.”

Above all, said Higgins, Father Nouwen’s “emphasis on relationality” is a key reason “his books continue to be published” and “people continue to access him.”

Ordained in 1957 as a diocesan priest, Father Nouwen attended the Catholic University of Nijmegen, now Radboud University, studying psychology before moving to the U.S. in 1964 for further training in the field at the Menninger Clinic. Later, he taught at the University of Notre Dame, Yale University and Harvard University.

Father Nouwen also spent time living with Trappist monks at the Abbey of the Gennesee and with the impoverished in Lima, Peru.

Moved to France’s original L’Arche community

In 1985, he moved to France’s original L’Arche community for persons with disabilities, and the following year settled at the L’Arche Daybreak home near Toronto, where he was based at the time of his death.

Higgins told OSV News that despite Father Nouwen’s interactions with Vanier or his years in L’Arche communities, “there is no indication” the priest was aware of founder Jean Vanier’s abuse of several adult women — none of whom were persons with disabilities — as detailed in a 2023 report commissioned by L’Arche, which followed several investigations. 

The report itself mentions Father Nouwen just four times, never in connection with abuse or knowledge thereof, with investigators noting Vanier along with his mentor, Dominican Father Thomas Philippe, successfully hid their abuse from many behind a “screen” of apparent “sanctity.”

In a joint statement provided to OSV News, L’Arche USA and L’Arche Canada said Father Nouwen is remembered “with gratitude” as “a friend, teacher, and member of L’Arche whose life and writing continue to challenge and support people in their spiritual and life journeys.”

Father Nouwen’s years at L’Arche saw him both “challenged” and “transformed through the process of building close relationships with people with and without intellectual disabilities.”

‘The possibility and impact of belonging’

In turn, the priest “gave L’Arche a remarkable gift” by finding “language for dimensions of shared life that can be difficult to name: vulnerability and mutuality, our need for one another, and the possibility and impact of belonging,” said the statement.

And, said L’Arche, Father Nouwen’s “life and writing remind us that needing one another is part of being human, and that human dignity does not depend on what we produce or accomplish” — a vision that “remains deeply relevant.”

In his 2013 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary on Father Nouwen — made with producer Kevin Burns, and like the book on Father Nouwen the two published titled “A Genius Born of Anguish” — Higgins noted that the priest’s concept of the “wounded healer” emerged during his time at Yale, and remained “central” to his lifelong work.

At Harvard, Father Nouwen would have a significant influence on a graduate student who eventually became president of Ukrainian Catholic University, leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S. and head of external relations for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church — Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Archbishop recalls Father Nouwen’s deep spirituality

Speaking to OSV News Sept. 8 from a conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Archbishop Gudziak — who was working on his doctorate at Harvard in Slavic and Byzantine cultural history when Father Nouwen taught there — recalled Father Nouwen’s deep spirituality, as well as his ability to “see things from a perspective others maybe didn’t see, or if they saw, weren’t ready to admit.”

As a graduate student, the future archbishop participated in Father Nouwen’s daily morning prayer group at the Harvard Divinity School’s Carriage House.

“There was the Morning Office, then silence for half an hour and then Mass every day, where he would give a sermonette,” said Archbishop Gudziak. 

Father Nouwen was supportive as the future archbishop discerned his priestly vocation — although he did not live to see him ordained a priest.

However, Father Nouwen did travel twice to a newly liberated Ukraine with (and at the urging of) then-Borys Gudziak, visiting that nation in 1993 and 1994 to give retreats, witness the reemergence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church — which had been driven underground by Soviet persecution — and to meet those serving persons with disabilities.

Father Nouwen recounted his experiences in “Ukraine Diary,” published in 2023 with a foreword by Archbishop Gudziak.

‘A very learned person’ who could ‘speak very simply’

The archbishop told OSV News that while Father Nouwen “was a very learned person,” he could nonetheless “speak very simply, which is not always the case with academics.”

“And it wasn’t abstract; it was from heart to heart,” said Archbishop Gudziak.

The archbishop also recalled Father Nouwen as “very sensitive to people’s pain” and “very faithful to friendships,” with an ability to “quickly bring you to the spiritual nucleus” of a given problem.

Both Archbishop Gudziak and Higgins said Father Nouwen’s spiritual insights, born of personal experience, continue to resonate three decades after his death.

Archbishop Gudziak said Father Nouwen was able to inspire those seeking guidance to ask themselves, “Who are you, and do you recognize who you are before the Lord, and that you’re loved by God? Start there.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.