Abbé Pierre, the late French Roman Catholic priest and activist who was the subject of more abuse accusations, has long been revered as a modern saint.
In July, the Emmaus anti-poverty charity founded by Father Piet said It hears allegations of sexual assault and harassment From seven women, it believed them.
Emmaus decided to remove Father Pierre from the organization after 17 more women came forward to say they had been abused by him.
The priest died in 2007 at the age of 94.
The Emmaus Movement, which he founded in 1949, operates in more than 40 countries. In France, his cloaked and bearded image became a symbol of Christian self-sacrifice.
Now, after the release of a second witness statement collected by independent consultancy Egaé, the movement has decided to remove Abe Pierre’s name from its various organizations.
The Father Pierre Foundation will be renamed, while Emmaus France’s board of directors will vote to remove the priest’s name from its logo. The Abe Pierre Center in Esteville, Normandy, where he lived for many years and is buried, will permanently close.
A decision will also be made on what to do with hundreds of statuettes, busts and other images of the charity’s founder.
“We are in a state of shock, very hurt, very angry,” said Christophe Robert, director of the Abbe Pierre Foundation. “We offer our fullest support to all victims who have the courage to speak out.”
The first blow occurred in July When the Emmaus Movement revealed allegations made by seven women, they said they were victims of sexual assault, primarily in the form of breast touching and unwanted kisses.
The 17 women who have since come forward have made accusations that in some cases were more serious.
One woman, known as “J” to Egaé Consulting, said she was forced to perform oral sex on Father Pierre and was forced to watch him masturbate. “J” is now deceased, but she told her story to her daughter.
The consultancy’s report also includes the experience of a woman named “M” who fell into trouble in the 1990s and approached the priest for help finding a home.
“Their more than a dozen meetings were always accompanied by forced kissing and breast touching. Father Pierre put his hand on her[private parts]through her pants,” the report said.
Another allegation involves a girl designated as “X” who was eight or nine years old when the priest allegedly abused her in the mid-1970s, touching her breasts “with his tongue” and kissing her.
Father Pierre was a member of the National Assembly from 1945 to 1951 and one staff member said, “He behaved like a sexual predator, attacking his female colleagues and having sexual relations with them.”
Egaé’s report said there were more accounts, but it omitted those provided anonymously or where the complainants were unwilling to disclose the full details. The most recent claims relate to the priest being 92 years old.
The sudden fall from grace of a modern icon—just last year, a biopic centered on him—didn’t come as a surprise as one might have expected. Continuous revelations about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have proven this.
Adding to the confusion for many, evidence is mounting that colleagues at Emmaus and the Catholic Church knew about Father Pierre’s sexual behavior but did not speak out.
Partly because in the early days – the first alleged attacks occurred in the 1950s – such behavior was not taken seriously.
But when the story of Father Pierre’s unwanted advances became impossible to ignore, the church and charities appeared to have colluded to keep his name out of the media, thereby reserving it for the poor and homeless. Achievement.
Father Pierre was born Henri Grouès in Lyon in 1912. He was ordained a priest in 1938 and took a vow of chastity. He became a household name through his participation in the Resistance during World War II and his famous appeal on behalf of the homeless in the winter of 1954.
According to Le Monde’s investigation, church leaders learned of his predatory behavior the following year, when he was asked to cut short a visit to the United States and Canada after women complained.
Biographer Pierre Lunel said that after the 1954 appeal, “all kinds of groupies wanted to pluck out one of his beards. It was pure hero worship. There was definitely sex then.” adventure.
In 1957, Father Pierre went to a clinic in Switzerland, ostensibly to recover from exhaustion, but really to keep him out of trouble. Thereafter, the church insisted that he be accompanied by a “social man” – a church assistant whose real job was to keep an eye on him.
In fact, from the 1960s onwards, his relationship with the church became increasingly distant, and his charity became a large and complex organization. For the next 40 years, he remained a figurehead and a model of French humility and selfless devotion.
On Monday, Emmaus International President Adrien Caboche confirmed that Father Pierre’s breach of his vow of chastity during that time was no secret to those with knowledge of the matter.
“Of course we knew that Father Pierre had a love life and a sexual life. But we are all shocked by the violent side that has now been revealed.
