Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, is accused by about twenty women, sometimes minors at the time, of sexual violence, some of which amounted to rape. Since their disclosure this summer by the Egae cabinet, the question of the institutions' silence has been central.
“The Church Made a Mistake,” said Sunday on RTL former president of Secours catholique Véronique Fayet. “Informed bishops and those responsible for Emmaus suppressed the affairs,” four researchers from Ciase (the independent commission on sexual abuse in the Church) said in July.
A 1958 letter revealed by Franceinfo may lend credence to this theory, since the Archbishop of Paris Maurice Feltin discourages the Minister of Civil Service from decorating the Abbé Pierre, whom he describes as “gravely ill”.
The “lost” church.
Pope Francis reignited the questions by saying in muddled remarks on Friday that the Vatican had been aware, at least since his death in 2007, of allegations of sexual violence against Abbot Pierre. Words that “crush all the efforts of the Church in France”, believes Anne Soupa, president of the Jupe Committee, a feminist and Catholic association that takes a critical look at the institution. “The church did not have the right attitude” and today “it is lost in this matter, it does not know where to go,” she told AFP.
Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, who in recent weeks spoke of an acquaintance with certain bishops, was more specific on Monday: “It is now established that, from 1955-1957, at least some bishops knew that Abbot Pierre had a serious attitude towards women. He recalled that the Church at the time had “a strong reaction to the ways of doing things at the time”, sending Abbot Pierre to psychiatric treatment, appointing him assistant…
After the revelations in the Egae cabinet, the CEF decided to open its archives as well. The Diocese of Grenoble, on which Abbot Pierre depended, took the same decision. And now? In his column published after the Pope's statements, Mgr de Moulins Beaufort also invites the Vatican to “a study of its archives”, and to “say what the Holy See knew and when it knew”. Because he also annoyed Francis's statement: “the question remains whether the Holy See was aware of rumors or facts and which ones,” a source close to the subject points out.
“Disgusted”
More broadly, the Archbishop of Reims calls “all other institutions and organizations” to do the same, in this work of “truth” around an abbot who “almost always lived at a distance” from the ecclesial framework. Abbé Pierre, whose real name is Henri Grouès, was a member of parliament in the 1950s before becoming “the French's favorite personality” for several years in a row in the 1990s.
After the testimonies published by the Egae company, Emmaüs announced the establishment of a commission of inquiry. France's church, which has been grappling with sexual violence scandals for years, has set up several reparations bodies and listening cells.