Accusations against Abbé Pierre: schools, statues, parks… These places which will be renamed after the numerous revelations

Since the new accusations of assault and sexual harassment against Abbé Pierre, several cities are planning to rename streets, gardens or schools bearing his name.

Testimonies against Abbé Pierre are multiplying. On Friday, September 6, 17 new testimonies were revealed in a report by the specialist firm Egaé, relayed by the Abbé-Pierre Foundation. Accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, but also intimidation, by women and children, the image of the religious man has been seriously damaged since this summer. If Emmaüs has already expressed its wish to change its name, and therefore to rename some of its centers, it is the turn of several municipalities to launch steps to change the names of streets, parks or schools.

Starting with the City of Paris, which, if it “salutes the salutary work carried out by the Foundation in complete transparency”, announced his intention to rename the Jardins Abbé-Pierre Grands Moulins, in the 13th^e borough, “since the Abbé-Pierre Foundation decided to change its name”. A decision taken in the face of “revelations […] “very serious” concerning religion. The town hall assures that it is “will bring closer of the Foundation in order to examine the modalities of this change”, which must, in any case, be approved at a Paris Council.

In Saint-Étienne, it is the city’s public tributes commission that must make a decision regarding its Abbé-Pierre square. It must meet before the end of the year, reports France Bleu Saint-Étienne. Its president, Gilles Artigues, proposes renaming it the Emmaüs Foundation square.

Beyond public places, there are schools, many of them private, that bear the name of the religious. In Ille-et-Vilaine, for example, the Abbé-Pierre de Tinténiac vocational high school, which has had this name since 2012, will change, the management announced. A reflection that had been started since the first revelations, in July, and which was presented and approved by the teaching team “unanimously”during the pre-back-to-school meeting on August 30, said the director, Raphaël Gouablin. He specified that a new name should be submitted by “the end of November”A choice that will be made in consultation with students, families and the educational and teaching team.

A change welcomed with relief by one of the high school teachers, Marie-Thérèse, who spoke to France Inter. “We are forced to take a position,” she assures. In the neighboring commune, in Hédé-Bazouges, the primary school will also change its name. Her children attend school there. “I am a victim of sexual abuse and rape and leaving the name, for me, is partly condoning it.” The director, Florina Loisel, had contacted the diocesan management this summer, but since the new revelations, everything has accelerated. “We hear that there are things with children, she tells the microphone of France Interso it is not possible to keep this name.”

In the small Normandy village of Esteville, in Seine-Maritime, several places are concerned by this thorny issue. First of all, the place of memory, dedicated to Abbé Pierre, will be permanently closed, announced Emmaüs. The village school will be renamed, even if “It was the intervention of Abbé Pierre himself with the Ministry of Education that allowed us to have a school with solid walls and a real roof”explains the mayor, Manuel Grente. For him, “the debate is quickly closed in view of the facts and when children are attacked”The fresco bearing the image of the abbot and the barriers bearing his name will also be modified, assures the Town Hall.

The city of Nancy, for its part, announced on Monday, September 9, the removal of a commemorative plaque, placed seven months earlier, in homage to Abbé Pierre. “Given these serious revelations, the municipality of Nancy has therefore decided to permanently remove the plaque in memory of Abbé Pierre.”wrote in a press release the city led by the socialist Mathieu Klein.

In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, it is a statue in the image of the religious man that poses a problem. Installed in the commune of Lescar, on a roundabout. Six meters high, it was inaugurated in 2019. The mayor, Valérie Revel, assures that the subject must be discussed with Emmaüs and the Departmental Council of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, since the statue is located on a departmental road, reports France Bleu Béarn Bigorre.