A priest regularly voted France’s most popular personality has been posthumously accused of sexual assault and harassment by at least seven women, including one who was a minor when the first incident allegedly occurred.
An investigative report, published July 17, said that at least five other possible victims were identified during a probe into allegations against Abbé Pierre, the founder of Emmaus, a charity serving the poor and homeless.
Abbé Pierre — who was a member of the French World War II Resistance and made a celebrated appeal for an “uprising of kindness” during the harsh winter of 1954 — is the latest prominent figure within French Catholicism to face posthumous accusations of sexual misconduct.
Others include Fr. Georges Finet, co-founder of the Foyers de Charité, Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, founder of the Community of St. John, and Jean Vanier, a Canadian who founded the L’Arche community in France.
The French bishops’ conference said July 17 that it was deeply saddened to learn of the reported sexual assaults committed by Abbé Pierre between the late 1970s and the early 2000s.
The bishops’ conference said it wanted “to assure the victims of its deep compassion and shame that such acts could be committed by a priest,” and stressed its commitment to ensuring that the Church is a safe place.
The report was commissioned after the French branch of Emmaus received a first-hand account in June 2023 of alleged sexual assault by the charismatic priest, who died in 2007, at the age of 94.
The agency Groupe Egaé, which was commissioned to produce the report by Emmaus International, Emmaus France, and the Abbé Pierre Foundation, interviewed 12 people and reviewed two testimonies sent to an employee of Emmaus International at the end of June.
The report, which suggested that Abbé Pierre’s behavior had been “known to many” in his lifetime, said: “Two of the people interviewed said that they had been subjected to inappropriate behavior of a personal nature that made them feel uncomfortable.”
“One person described a sexual proposition that made them feel uncomfortable. One person described repeated remarks of a sexual nature that made them feel uncomfortable.”
“Five people described unsolicited touching of a sexual area, three of them also suffered from unsolicited attempted physical contact.”
One of the alleged victims — whose name was withheld, along with those of the other women mentioned in the report — told investigators that she was a minor, aged 16 or 17, when the priest “touched several times on her chest” during a visit to her family home.
She said that when she was an adult, he forcibly kissed her “in a brutal and totally unexpected way” during a trip.
The woman testified that she later met the priest, accompanied by her father, and “read him a text telling him what he had put her through.”
She said that Abbé Pierre put the text in a shredder, but eventually apologized for his conduct.
Emmaus International said: “These revelations have shaken our organizations, where the figure of Abbé Pierre plays a major role. We all know his story and his message. These acts profoundly change the way we regard this man, who was known above all for his struggle against poverty, destitution, and exclusion.”
It added: “As of today, the Emmaus Movement has set up a strictly confidential system for gathering testimonies from people who were victims or witnesses of unacceptable behavior by Abbé Pierre.”
“This system is managed by Groupe Egaé and will offer people the opportunity to be heard, anonymously should they so wish, in addition to providing them with guidance and support.”
Henri Grouès, the future Abbé Pierre, was born in 1912 to a prosperous family in Lyon, southeastern France. He entered the Capuchin order in 1931 and was ordained a priest in 1938. He was given permission to leave the order a year later and was incardinated in the Diocese of Grenoble.
He was active in the resistance following the Nazi German invasion of France in 1940, helping Jews and politically persecuted people to escape to Switzerland.
After the Second World War, he served as a member of the French parliament and in 1949, he founded Emmaus.
Abbé Pierre gained international prominence in 1954 when he made an appeal, broadcast on radio, calling on the French authorities to solve the country’s acute housing shortage. The appeal resonated with the French public, raising 500 million francs.
Today, Emmaus International has 425 member associations in 41 countries.
Abbé Pierre topped an annual poll of France’s favorite personalities more than a dozen times, but was frequently engulfed in controversy. He supported married priests, women’s ordination, contraception, and same-sex adoption.
In the 2005 book “My God ... Why?”, he admitted to breaking his vow of celibacy.
He said: “I took a vow of chastity that didn’t take away the power of desire and it has happened that I have given in to this in a transient way. But I have never had regular liaisons because I never let sexual desire take root.”
“I felt that to be fully satisfied, sexual desire had to be expressed in a loving, tender, and confident relationship while such a relationship was closed to me because of the choice I had made in life.”
Adrien Chaboche, general delegate of Emmaus International, told the French Catholic newspaper La Croix that the report marked the “first stage” of the organization’s reckoning with its founder.
He said it would be followed by “a more in-depth work of reflection and analysis on the history of Abbé Pierre.”
“The investigation’s conclusions raise questions about his place in our history. But for us, the priority is to listen to the victims,” Chaboche said.
