A clear point of view. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner reacted on Saturday to new accusations of sexual violence brought against Abbé Pierre, to whom he was particularly close before his disappearance. The two men published together, in 1993, “God and Men”, a work which brings together several of their conversations.
“How do we feel when we discover these accusations, when we have been his friend? » asks journalist Aurélie Casse, this Saturday, on France 5, recalling that 33 testimonies were revealed against the man of the Church. “We say a lot to each other. In terms of the accusations and the reports that are coming out, certain areas do not seem clear to me. But anyway, we say to ourselves that it’s disgusting of course. But that is not enough to talk about a man like Abbé Pierre,” replied Bernard Kouchner.
The octogenarian then denounced the obligation of chastity of priests, seeming to detect in it an explanation of the serious excesses of the religious. A remark which immediately made the host react: “The chastity of priests is no excuse,” she exclaimed. “I’m not excusing it, I find it disgusting,” the former Minister of Health said. “Of course it’s horrible, but finally, once again, let’s not forget everything he did on the side,” he explained.
“I didn’t know, I didn’t say”
Bernard Kouchner reiterated his position on Saturday on the BFMTV set. “You can't change your mind about a friendship just because the man is bad,” he argued. “I didn’t know, I didn’t say, I didn’t even suspect,” he continued, adding that Abbé Pierre had “nothing like a Don Juan”.
-The journalist then questioned the co-founder of Médecins sans frontières about his own family experience, he who is the father of Camille Kouchner, who had revealed in a book published in 2021 the incest committed on his twin brother “Victor” by his step- father, the political scientist Olivier Duhamel. Bernard Kouchner seemed to dodge the question, returning to the real problem according to him: “What I condemn is this kind of pseudo-chastity that is required of a believer in the Catholic religion. »
The statue of the man who was for a long time an icon shattered in the dust, in July 2024, debunked by the revelations of seven women on sexual assaults by the resistant priest. In September, 17 new testimonies from women, adults and minors at the time of the events, added a nail of infamy to the coffin of the idol who died in 2007. They recounted abuse and rape.
Abbé Pierre is the target of nine new accusations of sexual violence, including rape of a minor and facts concerning at least one member of his family, according to the latest report from the specialized firm Egaé of which Le Parisien has become aware.
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