“It's thanks to him that we're here”: shock and concern at Emmaüs, where they don't want to touch the figure of Abbé Pierre

For the companions, there is no question of debunking the image of the priest who created Emmaüs. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

The accusations of assault and rape against Abbé Pierre are hard to accept within the Emmaüs community in Saint-Aunès (Hérault), one of the largest in France. Between disbelief and respect for the priest's work, the volunteers are disoriented while the donors remain faithful and do not lump them together.

“I heard that on TV on Sunday… It's still serious, but Abbé Pierre has done so many good things… It's a shame that we only know about it now, but that won't stop me from giving!"

Like Céline, a 32-year-old from Hérault, the new revelations about the accusations of sexual assault and rape by Abbé Pierre are astounding and cause conflicting feelings to intertwine.

The thirty-something, who works in social housing, "is expecting a baby" and she came to the Emmaüs center in Saint-Aunès (Hérault), one of the largest in France, to give "clothes and household appliances".

"Let him rest in peace"

Two companions, out of the 110 that the site has, come to collect the bags from the trunk of her car, they will be resold to support the community of precarious people who have left the streets or the wandering linked to their status as refugees.

“After all the good he did, even if he did something bad, he should be left to rest in peace!”, a companion grumbles without wanting to elaborate further. A volunteer supervisor, for his part, can't believe it. Stunned and upset. In denial. In fact, he doesn't want to believe it.

“A lot of people tell us that they think like us, that it's a hoax and many of us are disgusted but most don't believe it, it came out there, all of a sudden, we took it in the mouth”, he says under cover of anonymity.

“But where are we going”?”

The donors' cars arrive drop by drop and the volunteer waits a few seconds before continuing. Yes, the tutelary figure of Emmaus may have “had sexual urges”.

But from there to launching a campaign to revamp everything that refers to Abbé Pierre, photo and logo, there is a line that the community of Saint-Aunès, financially and legally independent, like the 122 branches in France, is not about to cross. As Emmaüs France and also internationally suggest.

“What, we have to take down the frames, the statues, the paintings ? But where are we going from here ?”, he rages. “All these people have lived on the back of Abbé Pierre, all these years and today, we throw him away like that ? Don't go telling a companion from our country that we have to take down the Abbé Pierre's frame… It's thanks to him that we're here and all the people we've pulled out of the shit for so many years."

"We're falling from a great height"

A few meters away, at the entrance, the giant head of the founder, in blue and yellow colors, the emblem of the association, continues to welcome donors. Like Daniel, 71, a former truck driver, who lives in Mauguio, the neighboring town.

“We are shocked, 17 new victims of sexual violence… When you see the film, he is a saint, there… Who to trust ?", he sighs as he gets out of his vehicle clothes, sweaters and shoes that he graciously gets rid of. The retiree readily defends the companions: “Here, they have nothing to do with it, I will always give so that it can give them work and housing”, assures Daniel, who is nevertheless in favor of removing the logo and references to the priest.

“All these people who can be put out on the street, it's a bit scary”

On the contrary, Brigitte, 65, who came from the village of Saussine, again bringing clothes, believes that nothing should be changed. “We must leave these people alone, they have had so many difficulties in their lives, we are not going to punish them and he is already dead”, says the former dental assistant. How will things turn out for the Emmaüs centres?? Behind the worry lies anger for the future of these companions if the economic model is called into question.

“There are all these people who can be put out on the street overnight, on a decision, it can cause all that, so it's a bit scary, I won't hide it from you”, says the supervising volunteer.

The end of an icon

The end of an icon. Since the first revelations, in July, of sexual assaults committed by Abbé Pierre over a wide period from the 1950s to 2005, the image of the man who has always been considered the tireless defender of the neglected, the herald of the homeless, has been considerably tarnished. The latest wave of 17 new testimonies made public this Friday has definitively deconstructed the myth. To the point that the Abbáeacute-Pierre Foundation, which commissioned this independent report with Emmaáuuml;s, announced that it had initiated steps to change its name. The Emmaáuuml;s movement, which Henri Grouáegrave;s, his real name, created in 1949, has for its part decided to áquot;the definitive closureáquot of the place dedicated to his memory. QED.

This new report this time reports facts that could be similar to rape or concerning minors. These are in their great majority “unsolicited contacts on the breasts” or “forced kisses”, but some testimonies also mention “repeated sexual contact on a vulnerable person“, “repeated acts of sexual penetration” or “sexual contact with a child”. A woman thus claims to have been subjected, in 1974 and 1975 in &Ile-de-France, to forced kisses when she was “8 to 9 years old”. Another, now deceased but whose story was sent in 2019 to the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, recounts scenes where she was forced to watch Abbé Pierre masturbate after he forced her to perform fellatio. She was the daughter of a lady in the 1960s.financially dependent on him and in great distress”. “He quickly went from charitable aid to sexual abuse“, she wrote.

The revelation of this letter also raises the question of the Church's silence on Henri Grouès actions. Investigations published by Le Monde this summer and the investigation unit of Radio France on Monday even show that the ecclesiastical institution seems to have tried to hide the facts. On several occasions, Abbé Pierre had to be exfiltrated countries where he was on an official visit. He was sidelined for a long time in Switzerland – officially to be operated on for a hernia – in a psychiatric clinic. In 1958, the Archbishop of Paris even advised the Minister of Civil Service not to decorate him. “He is a very sick man […] He has had some good initiatives, but it seems preferable to keep quiet about him", he wrote. His various secretaries would have had the main mission of monitoring him. He went so far as to threaten those who denounced his actions.

The Church today promises to collaborate with justice. Abbé Pierre, however, has gone through more than five decades in a hero's costume. It took nearly twenty years after his death for light to shine on his dark areas.

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