Abbé Pierre, the archives of the Church of France show alarmed bishops – Swiss Catholic Portal

The archives of the Church of France (CNAEF) on Abbé Pierre confirm that his errors were known to several bishops of the country. To what extent? In the opinion of the AFP, which consulted the 216 documents in the file, it is difficult to get a precise idea, even if it is clear that some would have liked to get rid of the character, who was too media-oriented. and doubtful.

Faced with the seriousness of the revelations on the abuses committed by the founder of Emmaüs, which have been occurring one after the other since July 2024, the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) opened access in mid-September to the Church’s archive documents on Abbé Pierre, without waiting for the deadline of 75 years after his death in 2007.

These 216 documents, mixing typed letters and handwritten letters, give weight to the remarks made by Mgr Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the CEF, in The World from September 16, 2024, and then taken up by the website of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF): “It is now established that, from 1955-1957, at least a few bishops knew that Abbot Pierre had serious behavior towards women. » These would include, according to archived documents, Mgr Jean-Marie Villot (1950-1960), Mgr Julien Gouet (1960-1966), as well as Mgr André-Jacques Fougerat, bishop of Grenoble on whom the abbot depended. Rock.

The documents consulted mention “accidents”, “moral miseries”, “reprehensible acts”, an “abnormal state”, but without further explanation. The most explicit document is a letter of November 13, 1964 emanating, perhaps, from the general secretary of the episcopate. She evokes a “loss of all self-control, especially after successful books” and assures that “young girls have been marked for life”. This document, “photocopied and almost illegible”, specifies the press agency, indicates that Henri Grouès acted “without it being possible to catch him in the act”.

Fear of scandal media

The media stature of Abbé Pierre, a resistance fighter during the war, deputy for the Liberation, crowned by his action for the homeless during the winter of 1954, raises fears of scandal. “We must not hide from ourselves that all this could one day or another become known and that public opinion would then be very surprised to see that the Catholic hierarchy has maintained its confidence in Abbot Pierre,” wrote Mgr Villot to the cardinal Pierre Gerlier, archbishop of Lyon, in January 1958.

The Assembly of Cardinals and Archbishops (ACA) expresses “its concern to see so many journalists approach it”. “Is it appropriate that his person be thus displayed, enlarged?” asked the bishop of Besançon in 1959. An administrator of the Emmaus association, Pierre Join-Lambert, expressed his “concern” in June 1959 at seeing the abbot received by General de Gaulle. “All possible blackmail is to be expected,” he explains, recounting a general assembly of Emmaus where “some protested against his presence”, a meeting punctuated by “very painful incidents with tears”.

Other documents still exist in the diocese of Grenoble, which has also opened its archives. Two letters also mention a “file” in the hands of the French Communist Party (PCF), which for its part says it can no longer find them. (cath.ch/afp/lb)