What we know about the 17 new testimonies revealed by the Foundation

The priest is accused of sexual contact, forced kissing, and even forced masturbation and fellatio. At least three victims were minors. The Foundation has announced several decisions, including changing its name.

New earthquake in the associative environment. After the first seven accusations revealed in July, Abbé Pierre is accused by 17 new women of different types of sexual violence, according to a report by the specialized firm Egaé relayed by the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, Friday, September 6.

The report submitted to the Emmaus Movement on September 4 details facts ranging from “sexual remarks” to some “repeated acts of sexual penetration” on an adult as well as “sexual contact with a child”In response to these testimonies, the Foundation announced several measures, including changing its name to remove the mention of the abbot. Here is what we know about these new accusations.

Seventeen new testimonies, ranging from sexist remarks to rape

After initial revelations targeting the abbot, “The Emmaüs movement has set up a listening service managed by the Egaé group. This service has received numerous reports concerning the actions of Abbé Pierre.”the foundation reports.

The new testimonies come from people who “are or were Emmaüs volunteers, employees of places where Abbé Pierre stayed (hotels, clinics, etc.), members of Abbé Pierre’s close family, or people met at public events. Some victims had contacted Abbé Pierre to ask for his help.”the report emphasizes. The events reported took place over a period from the 1950s to the 2000s, mainly in France but sometimes abroad.

Most of the testimonies mention sexual assaults. For example, three people mentioned “surprise contact on their breasts while they were volunteers in Emmaüs youth camps in 1966, 1982 and 1999”. Two other people who had to accompany the priest explain in a similar way that they “felt his hand on their breasts, in a firm manner”Six people also spoke of forced kisses in the 1980s and 1990s, and another of having escaped an attempt.

One of these people was 8 or 9 years old at the time of the events. She says that “Abbé Pierre asked her the color of her panties, touched her breasts, kissed her with his tongue”. Another had “about fifteen years” when Abbé Pierre asked him “caressed the breasts”which she said he tried to reproduce “when she had just got her baccalaureate”Another, who was 17 at the time of the incident, is among those who accuse the priest of touching their breasts.

At least seven others were adults or in their twenties, at least 20 years older than the abbot. One of them “was forced to masturbate Abbé Pierre during a trip to Morocco in 1956″according to members of her family. Finally, one testimony mentions rape: in a testimony sent to the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), a woman who is now deceased explains “having had to watch Abbé Pierre masturbate and having been forced to perform fellatio”.

One of the victims was in a situation of economic vulnerability. She was looking for accommodation and was taken in by Abbé Pierre “a few days”during which she had “about ten interviews with him” And “She was subjected to forced kisses and touching on her chest each time. Abbé Pierre would put his hand on her sex through her pants.”

The Foundation will change its name and take several measures

“The violence and extreme seriousness of some of these new testimonies have caused a new shock within our organisations”says the Abbé Pierre Foundation on its website. The organization reaffirms its “full support for the victims”which she greets “courage”and announces that “the Movement has taken several decisions which will be implemented as soon as possible”.

The Abbé Pierre Foundation will notably change its name. The board of directors of Emmaüs France will also “propose the removal of the mention ‘founder Abbé Pierre’ from the Emmaüs France logo at an extraordinary general meeting (…) next December”.

The place of memory dedicated to Abbé Pierre established in Esteville (Seine-Maritime), the village where the abbé is buried, “will remain permanently closed, and the future of the center will be the subject of collective work between its various member organizations”A file had already been filed internally to rename the center, after the first accusations.

Finally, “a commission of independent experts will be formed” under the leadership of Emmaus International “in particular to understand and explain the dysfunctions which allowed Abbé Pierre to act as he did for more than 50 years”. The movement, which “knows what he owes to Abbé Pierre”however, recalls that “The Emmaus Movement fights all forms of violence. Its place is therefore to denounce all intolerable acts, whoever the perpetrators may be.”

Reactions of “terror”, decisions deemed “indispensable” for victims

“The CEF [Conférence des évêques de France] wishes to express its horror at these new revelations and above all its deep compassion towards all those who are victims of these actions.”the episcopal conference said in a statement. The CEF “guarantees (…) its full cooperation” to the future commission of independent experts, and “encourage” the bodies responsible for the Church archives “to respond favorably” to his requests.

The decisions taken by the Movement were “essential out of respect for the victims”estimated on franceinfo Sister Véronique Margron, president of the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France, sponsor with the episcopate of the report published in October 2021 by the Ciase. “We must question the responsibilities of each person”continued Sister Véronique Margron: “Those who knew acted as if they did not know. Those who saw acted as if they did not see or could not see. This is a very, very serious phenomenon,” “systemic”.

“They talk to us about their name change, I don’t care about their name change”believes Arnaud Gallais, children’s rights activist and co-founder of Mouv’Enfants. “We are in a state of law, what is justice doing?”, castigates the former member of the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence against Children, who demands “a self-referral by the public prosecutor” in the name of the “dignity for victims”.