The Abbé-Pierre Foundation has started the process to change its name – Libération

Plunged into a crisis after new revelations, two months ago, of sexual violence targeting its creator, the foundation fighting against poor housing announced that it was launching its new campaign to fight against substandard housing, this Wednesday, November 6 . She wishes to maintain her objectives, but also adopt another name to “write a new chapter”.

Repair the damage in terms of image while staying on course with your actions. The Abbé-Pierre Foundation announces, this Wednesday, November 6, that it has initiated the legal steps to change its name and hopes to be able to announce its new name “shortly”, despite “a cumbersome legal procedure”. Shocked despite itself by the scandal linked to the accusations of sexual assault which have targeted Abbé Pierre since this summer, the foundation is committed to continuing its fight against poor housing. “We will never give up” reaffirms the association in its press release, which intends “write a new chapter”.

The name change of this 37-year-old foundation is “a very difficult but necessary decision, with regard to the victims”, explains the charity. On July 17, the Abbé-Pierre Foundation revealed in a press release facts of sexual assault or sexual harassment committed by the man of the Church, between the end of the 1970s and 2005. The French Catholic humanitarian is said to have been active during for many years on employees, volunteers of certain member organizations of the Emmaüs movement, or on young women in his close circle. This in the deafening silence of the Church. On September 6, the Foundation reported 17 additional complaints, in addition to the seven victim testimonies made public two months earlier. These new facts were revealed thanks to the installation of a listening device ordered by the foundation.

“Difficult decision”

Despite the “terrible” revelations “which caused a shock wave within the entire society”, in the words of Christophe Robert, the general delegate of the foundation cited in the press release, and “our difficult decision to change our name”, “our role remains the same”. To know how to fight “against all forms of inequality, exclusion and to support the most precarious populations”. The institution's new video campaign, made public this Wednesday, aims to reflect this. The slogan “we are not giving up” is hammered home, while eloquent figures are given: 3,000 children live on the streets each year, two million people suffer from substandard housing and all this without counting the five million families in energy sieves.

Some municipalities did not wait for the change of name of the association to erase the imprint of the priest, who died in 2007. The day after the first revelations of sexual violence, several municipalities began renaming work among the 600 places in France which bear his name. On September 30 in Lyon, a fresco representing Abbé Pierre was vandalized, a band of red paint covered the eyes of the founder of Emmaüs and the word “rapist” was written to his right.