Abbé Pierre: he was seven years old at the time of the facts… Accused of rape, the fallen priest had confided, in a letter, to having been the victim of sexual assault in his childhood

In a letter written by the priest and cited this Friday, December 13 by The WorldAbbé Pierre, today accused of sexual violence, revealed that he was the victim of sexual abuse in his childhood.

“I become under their gunpoint, their game”

Real name Henri Grouès, the founder of Emmaüs took up his pen and spoke in a letter about the sexual assault he suffered when he was a resident at the Notre-Dame des Minimes college in Lyon ( Rhône). “Big vicious people attack me. For two months, at gunpoint, I become their game.” he wrote in 1932 in a letter cited by our colleagues from Monde. In this 17-page letter, written since “his monastic cell of Saint-Étienne”, he addresses “his master of novices, Louis Antoine de Clermont Ferrand”.

Between these lines, il indicates he was seven years old at the time of these attacksfollowing which he decided to flee the college to return home. When he returned to the establishment after staying with his parents for three months, ill, “the grown-ups have forgotten me”he says. According to the fallen priest, his attackers were surprised with another victim and “dismissed with great scandal”.

“A seriously ill person spiraling out of control”

The famous apostle of the poor has been accused since July 2024 of sexual violence which took place between the 1950s and 2000 by 24 women, some of whom were minors at the time of the events. Among the reports raised against him, “inappropriate behavior of a personal nature, a sexual proposition, repeated comments with a sexual connotation, attempts at unsolicited physical contact, unsolicited contact on the breasts”.

Since these revelations, an independent commission of experts has been tasked with shedding light on the dysfunctions that allowed him to “not be worried” for his actions. In mid-September, the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) opened access to the documents, without waiting for the deadline of 75 years after the death of the priest in 2007. Documents qualifying the apostle as “very ill” “beyond your control” and reporting “serious behavior towards women”.