The Catholic Church in France has announced it will release records regarding allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against a priest venerated as a modern-day saint for his work with the poor and homeless.
The French Bishops' Conference (CEF) has announced that the archives of Father Pierre, founder of the charity Emmaus, who died in 2007, will be made public without the usual delay of 75 years after his death.
Seven women accused Pierre of sexual assault in July, and since then Emmaus said it has received 17 more testimonials containing “very serious” allegations of sexual abuse against multiple victims, including at least one who was a child at the time of the allegations.
in Joint Statement“The violence and extreme seriousness of some of the new testimonies have further shocked our organizations to their core,” the four organizations, the Abbé Pierre Foundation, Emmaus France and Emmaus International, said in a statement. They reiterated their “full support for the victims” and praised the “courage” of those who have come forward.
“We believe in them and we support them,” he said.
Until last year, Pierre was widely revered as a man who epitomized Christian self-sacrifice for humanitarian work, but church records show that the church was aware of concerns about his actions as early as the 1950s.
The Society of Emmaus, which has 425 chapters in 41 countries, is now moving to distance itself from its founder and will vote to remove the priest's name from its logo at a special general meeting in December.
The Abbé Pierre Foundation will be changing its name and the Abbé Pierre Memorial Centre in Esteville, Normandy, where the late Father Pierre lived for many years, will be permanently closed.
“Our movement is shocked by these revelations that bring a before and an after to our history,” said Adrienne Chabosh, president of Emmaus International.
Speaking to RFI RadioChabosh added: “Each chapter needs to reflect on how much space they should give Father Pierre. We are not giving instructions, but we encourage people to make responsible choices, especially now that Father Pierre's image has been established as a sexual predator.”
Emmaus has hired an independent consultancy called Egae to investigate the allegations and gather further statements from alleged victims. The allegations, which reportedly date back from the 1950s to 2005, took place in France, Switzerland, the United States and Morocco.
The Egae report, released on July 17, alleged “repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable individual,” “repeated penetrative sexual acts” and “sexual contact with a child.”
One woman claims that she was forced to perform oral sex on Father Pierre after he “made her masturbate in his Paris apartment” in 1989. Another claims that the priest kissed her “with his tongue” and groped her breasts in the mid-1970s when she was nine years old.
Investigators said there were other reports of alleged abuse but they excluded those that were anonymous or where the complainants were unwilling to discuss details.
Father Pierre was born Henri-Antoine Gruet in 1912 and was a Capuchin monk before being ordained in 1938. He joined the French Resistance during World War II and became a member of Parliament after the war ended.
CEF expressed “pain” and “shame” at the allegations and said it would cooperate fully with the investigation.
The church was shocked by a 2021 report by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, which revealed more than 3,000 cases of sexual abuse by clergy since 1950.
Chabosh told RFI that Emmaus is considering how to compensate victims. “It's a long and difficult process,” he said.
