“I reaffirm here the work of the Church in France so that the truth is made known”

This column was originally published in the newspaper Le Monde, on Monday, September 16, 2024 :

The Pope’s statements about Abbé Pierre, on his return from a twelve-day trip to South-East Asia, have rekindled the emotion in a France already stunned by the successive terrible revelations which have shattered the image of the man who had so often been called “the French people’s favourite personality”, and above all, of the man whose voice and example had transformed the way people looked at people in precarious situations and had encouraged so many French people to get involved in causes as important as the fight against “poor housing”.
As President of the Conference of Bishops of France, I would like to share three convictions and questions.

First of all, it is now established that, as early as 1955-1957, at least some bishops knew that Abbé Pierre had serious behavior towards women. Measures were taken, including psychiatric treatment. They may be considered insufficient, and one may regret that they were kept very confidential. However, they represent a strong reaction in light of the ways of doing things at that time, in the Church no doubt, but also in society as a whole. An assistant (socius), in particular, was imposed on Abbé Pierre. It seems that Abbé Pierre was ingenious in deceiving this surveillance. Questions must be addressed seriously: this socius Did he make reports? If so, to whom? What did he say? How long did this mission last? What happened when the priest so appointed withdrew or died? During the next fifty years of Abbé Pierre’s life, how were concerns about him and the measures to be taken with regard to him transmitted? It is to help shed light on these and other questions that the Conference of Bishops of France, as I announced last Thursday, has decided to lift the deadline for the communicability of the archives under its control concerning Abbé Pierre. I also respectfully express the hope that the Vatican will undertake a study of its archives and say what the Holy See knew and when it knew it.

I reaffirm here the work of the Church in France so that the truth is made on the facts of sexual assault and violence as well as on the facts of spiritual control, and to review its operations. I call on all other institutions and organizations to do the same. We owe this to the victims.

Secondly, it is also now established that it was known, at least in certain circles of Emmaüs, that Abbé Pierre was still alive and that he had to be watched because he was dangerous for women who approached him. However, numerous and detailed biographies have been written about Abbé Pierre and films have been made about him, during his lifetime and after his death. None of these studies, none of these films suggests that he engaged in sexual assault. This must be questioned. It has been read that the Church had “starred” Abbé Pierre. But who are we talking about when we say “the Church”? Men, women, bishops or not, knew or did not know, saw or did not see, acted or did not act, spoke or remained silent. Newspapers, magazines, various circles, including political ones, have established Abbé Pierre as a social figure and, since the 1990s, have built for him a new stature as “the French people’s favourite personality”. None of these organisations seem to wonder why no victim came to speak to him at the time. Now, they do. Through CORREF or CEF, through the listening cells of dioceses and religious congregations, through a dedicated line at France-Victimes, through the CRR and INIRR, the recognition and reparation bodies set up respectively by religious men and women and by dioceses, victims can finally speak with the assurance of being heard and supported. This is immense social progress. We have achieved it under pressure in particular from “la Parole libérée” and thanks in particular to our meetings with victims. We have done it; we are doing it. I also say it again, because I wrote it last July: in July 2022, a historian who had worked for the CIASE wrote to me to warn me that the CIASE had collected three testimonies from women assaulted by Abbé Pierre. It had been agreed between the CIASE and the bishops and the religious men and women that it would not give us any information on the testimonies received, but would encourage people to speak to us. We had to wait three years. The time of the victims must be respected. Above all, we must create a common climate that gives them confidence. I express to them here my closeness and assure them of my determination to ensure that their words have an effect.

Thirdly, by personal choice, Abbé Pierre has almost always lived at a distance from any properly ecclesiastical framework. To question the Church and priestly celibacy is not up to what the sexual assaults committed by Abbé Pierre still force us to see. The CIASE report, at the request of the Conference of Bishops and the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France, included a study of the general population which revealed the high proportion of people, both women and men, who were assaulted in their childhood. The movements #MeToo make public the violence in relationships between adults in all sorts of environments. Let us not believe that one day we will find a culprit on whom we can place all the weight of the opprobrium. Rather, we discover that there is always a possible violence that we must work internally to control and to deploy differently in a force of service, respect, and unity. Certainly, the sordid facts now revealed oblige the Church, that is to say the bishops, the dioceses, the parishes, the lay faithful, the priests, to watch over it more closely. But it is the whole of society that must question what it shows of sexuality to the younger generations, what it prepares and how it prepares them to live relationships that make them ever more human. Looking for culprits is one thing. Understanding how a man was left to his evil impulses is a necessary task. Thinking about what sexuality is and how to best experience it is a challenge that must be taken up on a societal scale.