At the beginning of the week, the Church of France reacted by press release, writing that “the accumulation of facts now known […] horrifies.” “Realizing that he used his media aura and the social work he had built […] to sexually abuse women, children, and people in precarious situations, is appalling. The Conference of Bishops expresses its closeness to all.”
“The aura of Abbé Pierre became such that all caution towards him was swept aside”
Means of investigation
This Friday, she decided to go further. The president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) Eric de Moulins-Beaufort announced on RMC that he had “seized justice” Tuesday to ask him to open an investigation into Abbé Pierre.
In a press release, the CEF clarified on Friday that this report was made “for failure to report rape and sexual assault on vulnerable people and minors” so that the parquet “appreciates the opportunity to open an investigation” to determine how the facts “may have not been reported to justice for all these years”adds the press release.
Abbé Pierre targeted by nine new accusations of sexual violence, including rape of a minor
-It is also about investigating “possible other victims or possible accomplices”specified Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort, emphasizing that the prosecution “has means of investigation that a historical commission of inquiry like the one brought together by Emmaüs […] doesn’t”.
Recalling that he had already requested in September the opening of the Church’s archives on Abbot Pierre, Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort explained that it was necessary to go “to the end of the truth.
While many rumors about the sexual life of Abbot Pierre were circulating during his lifetime, one of the questions which now torment the Church, the media sphere which followed the Abbot, as well as the associative world born in his wake, is in effect of understanding why no one – in front of this icon – dared to mention out loud what many feared.
