The French charity Emmaus has taken steps to distance itself from its founder, the late Abbé Pierre, following serious new allegations of sexual abuse. An investigation by French public radio found uncovered that the once venerated priest attempted to silence his critics.
Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, was long celebrated in France for his dedication to the poor and homeless.
However, his reputation suffered a severe blow in July when Emmaus, the anti-poverty movement he founded in 1949, revealed allegations of sexual assault from seven women.
On Friday, the charity disclosed an additional 17 testimonies, including accusations of rape and abuse of a young girl.
In a joint statement, the Abbé Pierre Foundation, Emmaus France and Emmaus International reiterated their "total support for the victims", praising the "courage" of those who had come forward.
“We believe them and we stand by them,” it said.
Emmaus has acted decisively to distance itself from its founder. The Abbé Pierre Foundation is to change its name, and the Abbé Pierre memorial centre in Esteville, Normandy, where the late priest resided for many years, will close permanently.
Meanwhile the board of Emmaus France is to vote on whether to remove the priest’s name from its logo.
With 425 branches in 41 countries, the allegations will have repercussions far beyond France.
“Each branch will have to reflect on how much space to give to Abbé Pierre,” Adrien Caboche, head of Emmaus International, told RFI.
"We're not giving instructions but we encourage people to be responsible in the choices they make since Abbé Pierre's image is now also that of a sexual predator."
Sexual abuse from 1950s to 2000s
Caboche said he first heard of the accusations in June 2023 when Emmaus was contacted by a woman claiming the priest had sexually assaulted her.
The charity set up a support centre and hired independent consultancy Egaé to gather and verify further testimonies, leading to the publication of the seven allegations in July.
A hotline was set up allowing other women to come forward – "essentially the listening ear [the victims] should have had a long time ago,” Caboche said.
While the first seven allegations involved mainly non-consensual breast-touching and unwanted advances, the most recent are more damning.
They include "repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person", "repeated penetrative sex acts" and "sexual contact with a child", the report said.
One woman – referred to as “J” in the report – had written to France's committee investigating sexual abuse in the Catholic church that she had been "forced to watch Abbé Pierre masturbate and to perform oral sex in a Paris apartment" in 1989. “J” has since died and her testimony was passed on by her daughter.
Another charge relates to a girl who was just eight to nine years old in the mid-1970s when the priest allegedly kissed her “with his tongue” and touched her chest.
A further witness reported forced physical contact while Abbé Pierre was serving as an MP in France's National Assembly in 1951.
The alleged abuse spans from the 1950s to the 2000s, with the most recent claims dating back to when the priest was 92.
While most of the abuse took place in France, some was in the United States, Morocco and Switzerland.
The testimonies are from current or former Emmaus volunteers, workers in places where Abbé Pierre stayed, members of families with close ties to the priest or people he met at public events, Egaé said.
Church and charity knew
Abbé Pierre, born Father Henri-Antoine Grouès in 1912, was ordained in 1938. He was a member of the French Resistance during WWII and became an MP at the end of the war.
He founded the first Emmaus community to help homeless men in Paris in 1949, and turned into a household name when, in the winter of 1954, he made a passionate plea for France not to turn its back on homeless people.
Just last year, he was the subject of an adulatory biopic marking the 70th anniversary of his famous speech.
Caboche said the charity has set up a commission of historians and researchers to understand “how such a well-known man was able to do what he did for so many years, without being stopped”.
Le Monde revealed in July that both the Church and Emmaus were aware of Abbé Pierre’s predatory behaviour as early as 1955, when he was visiting the US and Canada.
Following complaints, French Catholic theologian Jacques Maritain cut the trip short to prevent a scandal.
An investigation by Radio France, published Monday, revealed extracts of Abbé Pierre’s correspondence threatening an American student who had warned the church of the priest’s behaviour with reprisals if he went public.
In 1957, the church sent the priest to a clinic in Switzerland, officially for exhaustion recovery. In reality, it was to keep him out of the newspapers, Le Monde reported.
French priest's 1954 appeal to fight homelessness still topical 70 years on
Compensation for victims
France’s Catholic bishops' conference (CEF) has expressed its “pain” and “shame” over the accusations and announced full cooperation in the investigation.
The church has been shaken by a 2021 report by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, which identified more than 3,000 cases of sex abuse by priests since 1950.
Véronique Margron, head of the umbrella group of Catholic religious orders in France (Corref), has called for “a process of justice, recognition and reparation”, similar to that undertaken after the 2021 report.
French Catholic Church expected to outline compensation plans for clerical sex abuse victims
Caboche said Emmaus is exploring how to compensate the victims. “It’s a long, difficult process. We’re very aware we have to address this issue, so we’re working on it,” he told RFI.
As for the charity, Caboche said that Abbé Pierre remains “a very important figure for us, historically and symbolically”, but they would have to start rebuilding and “presenting themselves in a different way”.
Despite the “shock and dismay” among volunteers, some have said: “It’s painful for us, it impacts us, but it won’t stop us from continuing our actions, continuing the fight as before,” Caboche said.
