Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, is accused by around twenty women of sexual violence. His nephew speaks for the first time on the facts alleged against his uncle.
Accusations that also shock his family. Guy Tuscher, nephew of Father Pierre, admitted this Monday, October 7 on France Bleu that he was aware that his uncle was not respecting his vow of chastity. However, he claims to have never suspected that he was the perpetrator of sexual assault or rape.
“In the family, we all knew that our uncle’s sexuality was problematic,” says Guy Tuscher, 71, son of Abbé Pierre’s little sister, without specifying what he means by that exactly.
“My mother Anne-Marie, his sister, had argued with him a lot on the subject. She knew very well that celibacy, for him, was something unbearable,” he continues.
“On the other hand, the sexual assaults as they were described, no, we did not know about them,” assures the nephew of the founder of Emmaüs.
“A disappointment”
For Guy Tuscher, the accusations of sexual assault, revealed to the general public first in July then last September, had the effect of an electric shock.
“It was violent,” he says, denouncing “unacceptable” facts.
Evoking a “disappointment with the man”, Guy Tuscher nevertheless refuses to “deny” him. “He remains my uncle,” he said.
Guy Tuscher claims to listen to the women who accuse his uncle. “I support these women who have told what they suffered. They must speak so that a healing process can take place and to put what they experienced with him far away from them,” assures the septuagenarian.
“We can’t say that everything he has done is to be thrown away. That’s not possible,” defends Guy Tuscher at the same time, referring to his uncle’s charitable work which he describes. as “a man with his strengths and weaknesses”.
“Everyone knew”
Guy Tuscher remembers the idealized image that his uncle had, seen as a benefactor, particularly with the creation of the Emmaüs association which came to the aid of the most deprived.
“Everyone was captivated by the myth of Abbé Pierre. And who was the man behind it? Well, we now discover the man,” he notes.
For the septuagenarian, the impression that the abbot was almost untouchable undoubtedly gave his uncle a feeling of omnipotence. He could “always (have) the pretext to say to himself: ‘in any case, my celebrity helps me for my humanitarian and political action'”, estimates Guy Tuscher.
Abbé Pierre accused of sexual assault: “How do you do it when it’s God who does this to you?”
Abbot Pierre’s nephew also denounces the role of the Church in this affair. “Everyone knew there was a problem, the Church, the State, which did not want to give him the Legion of Honor, and even Emmaüs, which had no interest at the time in let it be known,” accuses the septuagenarian.
The president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) Éric de Moulins-Beaufort acknowledged in mid-September that “it is now established that, from 1955-1957, at least some bishops knew that Abbot Pierre had a behavior serious towards women.
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