Le Père Michel Jaouen

Michel Jaouen

Michel is hand in glove with the sea.
He denies it. He pretends that the sea doesn't stick to his skin, that he could live without it. Maybe.
But what I know is that between him and the sea, there is a familiarity, a connivance, almost a complicity. On the island of Ouessant, where he was born in 1920, the sea already surrounded him.

When his father, a doctor and former navy doctor, moved 4 years later to Kerlouan, in the Finistère, the sea was still there, only but a few yards from his house. During the seven years that he spent at the high school of "Bon Secours", in Brest, he lived among future navy men. Later on in his life, when he met up again with some of them, they had become naval officers, like his own brother Hervé, and all of them, along with the Royal Navy authorities, proved very helpful to him.
Navy recognize its own people, even when they don't wear its uniform.

In 1943, he puts his destiny at sea trying to escape the German occupying forces and reach England. A motor break will stop his attempt. Later on, when he starts his work with young delinquents, where does he choose to establish his base ? In the Aberwrac'h, where the sea penetrates far inland.

He purchases a vast plot of land, builds two large camps and asks the sea to provide leisure activities for his "tough guys". Among his flottilla, a sailing boat is named "Bel Espoir I".

Yes, wathever he may say, he is a sailorman to the marrow. He smells the sea, he smells the wind, he smells the sails, he records and interprets the slighest noises or creaking of the boat and its rigging. He is more of a maneuverer than a sailing technician, he doesn' t take the helm, he can't operate a sextant, but he makes sure that the route is checked and he can always spots errors. In case of problems, he is always the first on the deck and his thundering voice draws the crew and shouts orders.

Ah ! What a voice !
It is perfectly suited to the sea and the wind, but on dry land, it retains its volume and its slightly hoarse and somewhat earsplitting tone. Basically, his voice betrays him: he can't reduce it, he thinks he's still at sea.

... Michel has kept his powerful aspect: an athletic build, (1,78 m and 85 kg minimum), forearms as powerful as those of Eric Tabarly, wide and firm hands better to keep away from, even when they are clean, which rarely is the case. Because he does everything onboard: mecanic, quatermaster, cook, radio operator, sailor....

He rummages in the motor, plunges his hands into the toilets pans to unblock them, cut the meat or cleans out the tuna that has just been fished, hoists the sails, he never stops. When he comes to give a hand, his contribution is conclusive: his weight and his muscles make a difference, everything comes to him and he crushes you.

He recuperates in his own way: he can sleep everywhere easily, in the kitchen, sitting in front of a stove not bothered by the heat, on a seat in the roof undisturbed by surrounding noise, in the riggings and in the ports of calls, in the cafes and nightclubs while his passengers dance and sing around.
A definite sign of good health.

He doesnt smoke and doesn't drink, except with his meals. He is sometimes seasick, but he doesn't like to show it and to talk about it. Considering he comes from a family of fifteen children, he is in very good health. The Bretons are a strong people when not undermined by alcohol.

He can wear anything, according to the circumstances and seasons: dungarees, underwear, oilskin, but you will notice him immediately, attracted by his imposing personnality. He often dresses poorly, his clothes neglected and stained, but he has great presence and a well-sculptured face. When he makes the efforts to shave, to wear a neat pair of pants and jacket, il looks just grand, and he can be a real charmer and knows how to be convincing. He is however very direct. He doesn't trouble himself with preliminaries nor polite small talks. He doesn't turn his words, they just burst out in a single flow and they hit you right in the face. His language is dense, colorful, yet never vulgar. It never occured to him that he should adapt his way of speaking to the person he's talking to. His language is good for everyone and all environments. And whether he is talking to a navy admiral or a sailorman from Camaret or a juvenile delinquent from Belleville, he always feels at ease.
His direct and non sophisticated contact is understood by all, despite the language barrier..

People may like or dislike his outspokenness. Some people are taken aback and even chocked by his lack of consideration, his refusal to comply to their function or rank, by his way of questioning their ideas and their acts. They don't appreciate his statements on TV, his press interviews, where he demythifies men and their deeds.

Others, on the other hand, are first amused by his exuberance, then grateful to see an "emancipated man" who proclaims some truths that they don't dare saying. But those who have spent time with him know very well this straightforwarness is not an air he puts on, an originality he likes to display. It is the expression of his inner freedom and his attachment to the freedom of others. He doesn't refuse, as people have ofter reproached him, to commit with instititions of some sorts but he reserves the right to free himself from them and to denounce their problems and failures. He is a free man, he doesn't owe anything to anyone and he has proven it.

He went from the prison of Fresne to the special residential school of Epinettes and from there to the Bel Espoir. He goes where he feels he is needed and he never turns back. He became a "figure" but he doesn't entertain a personality cult. He is renowned, but he doesn't count on recognition.

... He has penetrated into all social classes, has lived so many experiences, played a role in the life of so many people that he could be tired, blasé, or have lost his illusions. No doubt he is realistic and nobody is more aware than him of what is happening in the world. It is just that men are important to him and he is instinctively on their side in their struggle for existence, and he intends to defend them against the injustice of fate, or social injustice, against anything that threatens to crush them or take away their hopes. He himself never despairs of anyone, whatever his past, his errors, his bad qualities. As long as a person comes to him, he will support him, in his own firm and unobtrusive way. The interest he has for you is not smooth or sentimental. He treats you in a sobre and direct manner, which doesn't allow for pity or subordination. The favors he does for you don't bind you in any way. With him, nobody can be ungrateful. What he gives never calls for any counterpart. You disappear, he waits. You come back, he is here and welcomes you without any reproach, without any questions nor bitterness, because when he first accepted you, he has also accepted the risks of your own adventure. It is up to you to grasp the opportunities he creates for you to pull yourself together again, but he won't substitute himself for you.

He won't stop offering you new opportunities and if the first solution doesn't work, he will find a second and again a third one. He will contact the countless friends he has everywhere and who are devoted to him. He will call them, visit them, intercede but he will always remain the ultimate resort, the ultimate refuge towards which those in difficulty will converge. By him, they look for security and the feeling of existing. He is himself so lively that next to him, they feel they have come alive again, they feel they can draw from him the energy they lack. To such extend that some of them, fearing they can't maintain this level of energy without being directly plugged onto this power source, have a hard time leaving him. Michel doesn't like this type of lingering bond, his ambition is to give birth to independant and self-sufficient beings.

... Whether it is on the Bel Espoir, in his small Parisian office or in the Aberwrac'h, a micro-community develops around Pere Jaouen, deprived of all heavy social conventions, of all inhibitive taboos, a micro-community comprising of a variety of social backgrounds and no longer shamefull individual stories, where simplicity and natural have taken over.

In this small world where organisation is reduced to the minimum and verges on disorder, there is room for improvisation, resourcefulness, the unexpected, and life reigns sweeping away screens, masks and bad memories. It is a human-sized world where man regains his own size.

Where does Michel get his energy from ? How does he succeed in keeping so high and so constant his vitality potential ?

... Michel is a religious figure and a priest. He entered the "Compagnie de Jésus" in 1939, and was appointed to the priesthood in 1951. All his actions have developped during the 46 years he has been closely linked to Church. It is up to everyone to decide whether it is suitable to establish a link between his faith and the quality of his influence".

Extracts from "Le Bel Espoir.
Trois voyages avec les drogués.
Alain Maucorps
ISBN: 2.85.513.004.2

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