Informed of the attacks perpetrated by Abbé Pierre, the Vatican tried to prevent the famous French priest from coming to Canada in 1959, reveal archives of the French Catholic Church consulted by the newspaper. Release. Here in Quebec, Catholic authorities claim not to have any documents in their archives relating to Abbé Pierre’s visits. According to a count by Dutythe priest traveled to the province at least nine times. Were archives destroyed, as recommended in an instruction given by a father to religious archivists in 1991?
In an effort to be more transparent, the bishops of France agreed earlier this month to open their archives to shed light on the attacks committed by Father Pierre and documented in two reports commissioned by the Emmaüs group.
According to the revelations of Releasethe Vatican had been aware of the actions of Henri Grouès — Abbé Pierre’s real name — since at least 1959, and the Holy See tried to prevent the founder of Emmaus from going to Canada.
On January 27, 1959, Mr.gr Paolo Marella, the Apostolic Nuncio in Paris (the Vatican’s ambassador to France), wrote to Mgr Jean-Marie Villot, who heads the secretariat of the Assembly of Cardinals and Archbishops in France: “The Holy See orders Father Pierre to immediately suspend the trip he intends to make to Canada because of the difficulties that have been reported by the country’s bishops.”
Release mentions that, in the letter, “the tone is firm even if the terms remain sibylline, as is usual in the Catholic Church when it comes to sexual deviations of priests.” Further on, the newspaper adds that “reading the message from the Vatican, it is the Canadian bishops who, at least this time, have sounded the alarm.” Abbé Pierre will nevertheless go to Quebec in 1959.
No traces in the archives
The authorities of the Catholic Church in the country say they have found no traces in their archives of correspondence or documents relating to Abbé Pierre’s travels.
In response to questions from the Dutythe Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops claims not to have “found any documentation on Abbé Pierre”. The Diocese of Montreal claims not to have “detailed or exhaustive archives on the activities of Abbé Pierre during his stay in Quebec”. As for the Diocese of Quebec, it mentions not having “found any information concerning Abbé Pierre”.
A press review carried out by The Duty established that the founder of Emmaüs travelled to Quebec at least nine times, in the summer of 1956, the winter of 1958, the fall of 1959-1961-1962-1963 and the summer of 1991-2000-2004. During these trips, Abbé Pierre went several times to Quebec City, where an Emmaüs counter was inaugurated in 1959. He also went to Montreal, Chicoutimi, Sherbrooke, Granby and Gatineau, among other places.
After the Vatican tried to prevent Abbé Pierre from coming to Canada, the man travelled to Quebec at least seven times.
These trips also took place after the French Catholic Church and the Emmaüs organization, presumably aware of the prelate’s actions, had sent him to a psychiatric clinic in Switzerland for six months in 1957-1958. “The real reason for this removal was the fear of a sexual scandal,” historian Axelle Brodiez-Dolino, author of the book, told France Inter Emmaus and Abbé Pierre.
Victims in Quebec?
Documents revealed by Release and France Inter suggest that Abbé Pierre has claimed victims in Quebec. Both media outlets have in hand a handwritten letter written by Abbé Pierre on September 6, 1959, while he was staying at the Oka Abbey. In a scathing tone, he responds to a Quebec reverend who was aware of “accusations” against him: “It never existed anywhere, none of these miserable police acts that you spoke of.”
France Inter also published the testimony of a French theologian claiming that a Quebec priest had told him in 1963 that Abbé Pierre had committed sexual assaults on women in Montreal and that the Catholic Church and the police were aware of it.
Destroy files
Is it possible that documents from the Catholic Church in this country were destroyed? In a document (a letter) filed Friday in the Superior Court of Quebec as part of the class action against the Brothers of Christian Instruction, we learn that an instruction was given in 1991 to the Church’s archivists to encourage them to “destroy” or “place elsewhere” documents that could prove compromising if they were seized by the police.
This recommendation was formulated in a general manner and does not deal specifically with the case of Abbé Pierre. In this letter transmitted through the Regroupement des archivistes religieuses, Father Francis G. Morrisey — a former dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at Saint Paul University in Ottawa — recommends “keeping in the ecclesiastical archives only what one would agree to see seized by the civil authorities.”
“Since we are not obliged to keep everything, it would be good, before a civil case arises, to go through the archives and destroy any document that could be harmful later,” continues Father Morrisey. He adds that the destruction of documents should be done “all the more so when it has not been deemed necessary to proceed with a trial.” The letter also indicates the presence of “secret archives” in the dioceses.
In another correspondence, Father Morrisey wrote to a brother that this instruction should not be made public, “because if ever lawyers for the “victims” learn that we have certain files elsewhere, they will be tempted to look for them also by means of a subpoena “.
Asked about the fact that the Catholic Church of Quebec says it has no information in its archives on Father Pierre, Mr.e Alain Arsenault — who leads several class actions against religious congregations — says he is not surprised. “They cleaned house,” he says. “In the early 1990s, religious organizations became aware that the reports of sexual assault were starting.”