New revelations against Abbot Pierre. A report published Tuesday, January 14 by the Egaé cabinet reveals nine new accusations of sexual violence against the cleric, including rape of a minor and acts of incest. The events described in the text took place from the 1960s to the 2000s, most of the time in France and sometimes abroad. In total, since last summer, there have been 33 testimonies, to which must be added around twenty other alleged facts, which overwhelm the abbot, who died in 2007 at the age of 94.
“One victim is already one victim too many”explains Gabi Mouesca who says it whether we are at the first or third wave of revelations about Abbé Pierre. This member of the Emmaüs community was informed of these new revelations a few days ago. Six years ago, he founded the Emmaüs Baudonne farm in Tarnos, in the Landes, which welcomes women prisoners under sentence adjustment. “I am like all the actors and actresses of the Emmaüs movement, in full solidarity with all the victims”declares Gabi Mouesca.
“We are unfortunately faced with a system of serial predation”estimates Véronique Margron, president of the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France (Corref), on franceinfo. “We are facing one of the most public men in France. How can we think that all this could have been done without the absolute knowledge of any institution for such a long time?”asks Véronique Margron while responding that “it's impossible“.
At the Emmaüs Baudonne farm, the decor has changed since the summer: the photos and representations of Abbé Pierre have disappeared. He now hopes to be able to move forward, still with Emmaüs: “We are moving towards a phase which is to move from the moment of legitimate emotion towards that of understanding the mechanisms which led this man to commit the acts with which he is accused. We are also here to say that we are continuing the path. “
“Emmaüs continues to act, to react, to maintain loud and clear its banner of resistance to the evils of poverty. And today more than ever, we have the legitimacy to continue the fight.”
Gabi Mouesca, Emmaüs Baudonneat franceinfo
According to Véronique Margron, it will be necessary “do real work on this institutional issue and on what made possible the systemic nature of the attacks and violence committed by this man”. She emphasizes that since the release of speech on the case of Abbé Pierre in July 2023, we know “nominally 50 to 60 [de ses] victims” presumed, but she considers that “behind, there are at least as many if not many more that we don’t know, who will never speak or who are dead.”
Once the end of the listening system set up by the Egaé cabinet, scheduled for January 31, a study commission on the violence committed by Abbé Pierre will be launched in February, for a period of two years .
