on BFMTV, a documentary to understand the ostracism of Abbé Pierre

The statues are unbolted. His face gradually disappears. A name that embodied exemplary behavior in popular language has become synonymous with sexual assault and abuse of power. In two reports published in July and September, 24 women accuse Abbot Pierre of forced kisses, masturbations, fellatio without consent, occurring between 1950 and 2000. In a film broadcast on Sunday at 8:50 p.m., BFMTV brings together the file.

Several testimonies that we hear there have already appeared in the press. That, for example, of Pascale who recounts how a call for help sent to the founder of Emmaüs in 1993 led him to fall into his trap. « I carry this guilt for not having spoken »she says, specifying that she feared not being believed. She thought she was alone in her situation.

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Tormented youth

Jacques Maritain, a renowned French theologian, took stock of the abbot’s problematic character in 1955, when he was responsible for organizing his stay in New York. There were enough complaints that the trip was cut short. Maritain then described a « very seriously ill ». This journey to North America led the Catholic hierarchy to impose forced rest on the priest in a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. Officially, for a herniated disc.

The founder of Emmaus will be chaperoned all his life, or almost, in order to channel his sexual excesses, probably born in childhood. The Worldbefore BFMTV, unearthed letters from his youth which depict his complicated personality, prey to impulses and intimate suffering. Abbé Pierre, whose real name is Henry Grouès, also claimed to have suffered sexual assault.

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« How many young girls have been sexually assaulted? I wonder and it hurts me »breathes journalist Esther Romero, who claims to have been the victim of the attacks of the former resistance fighter during an interview in 1988.

Figure intouchable

To these multiple testimonies, BFMTV adds a new one. A former secretary who worked for Emmaüs for a long time remembers here touching and attempts by the priest to « coax him ». « I have the impression that the subject was perceived as an appendix, an accessory »she adds in order to explain the indifference that her fate then aroused.

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During his life, the religious man spoke about his sexual appetite, taking care to conceal his violent nature. Half-confidences which perhaps contributed to blurring the lines. But how can we explain more generally these fifty years of impunity, to use the title of the documentary?

This provides several elements of response. The primacy given by those close to him to his rich fight in favor of the poor, the feeling shared by the hierarchy that he was going to heal or the great place he had taken in society. Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, had become difficult to criticize.