Abbé Pierre accused of sexual violence: the choice of transparency for associations

L’image de l’Abbé Pierre écornée à jamais. Celle des associations qui portent son nom aussi ? – MAXPPP

Emmaüs et la Fondation Abbé-Pierre assurent les victimes de leur soutien total et encouragent même la libération de leur parole. Mais, pour certains, cela arrive un peu tard.

Emmaüs and the Abbé-Pierre Foundation have focused on transparency despite the shock caused by the accusations of sexual violence targeting the icon of the fight against poor housing; a decision that has been praised but not without criticism.

A first explosion in July, followed by another on Friday. Abbé Pierre, long one of the French people's favorite personalities and an emblematic figure of the social struggle, is accused by a total of 24 women of having committed sexual violence, according to reports from a specialized firm.

A rare approach

After being alerted by a former victim, the associations founded by the priest who died in 2007, Emmaüs International, Emmaüs France and the Abbé Pierre Foundation, decided to launch "a listening exercise […] to establish whether other similar events could have occurred". A rare approach.

In July, following the first wave of revelations, the EELV MP Sandrine Rousseau, known for her feminist commitment, had already judged on X that the Abbé-Pierre Foundation and Emmaüs were “courageous to have put things in transparency”. “It is really an exception, what is happening, in terms of the approaches of the organizations concerned“, Elsa Labouret, spokesperson for Osez le Féminisme, greeted AFP.

On the downside, however, she regrets that the collection of victims' words “arrives extremely late”.

“A turning point”

The three organizations insist on their “total support” for the victims. They entrusted the collection of testimonies to the Egaé firm, presented as a national reference, a choice that could have raised eyebrows in light of the controversies that accompanied the career of its co-founder, the feminist activist Caroline de Haas.

“The way Emmaüs has decided to tackle this issue will mark a turning point […]. It has never happened that a structure looks squarely, in such a transparent and determined manner, the issue of sexual violence committed by someone within it", judges Caroline de Haas.

Despite the suffering expressed by women who have reported sexual violence, "several people express relief that the facts are finally public and recognized", notes the Egaé report published Friday.

Testimonies known for several decades

Former president of Emmaüs France and today responsible for an integration structure within the Movement, Thierry Kuhn also testifies to“many reactions from people who say: we are proud to belong to a movement that has been able to tackle this issue head on and react healthily: we listen to the victims, we believe them, we support them and we make these revelations public”.

But the attitude of the associations does not prevent angry reactions, while revelations in the press have reported testimonies that were already known several decades ago. Adrien Chaboche, general delegate of Emmaüs international, thus evokes, in an interview with the newspaper La Vie in July, facts brought to the attention of certain members of the Movement “at a time when Emmaüs, and more broadly French society, did not have the same sensitivity to this violence”.

“Not far enough”

“I find that it is a little easy”, says Revoii, head of the association of victims of sexual violence Mouv’Enfants, on the subject of work that, according to him, "does not go far enough".

"Is it normal that an organization that has not denounced crimes and acts of sexual violence […] can take justice into its own hands by hiring a private firm ?", the activist protests to AFP, demanding that the structures look into their responsibilities and that justice take charge of the affair.