what the Church and Emmaus knew
From 1942, Henri Grouès, 30 years old, stood out for his “imprudence”, “his great vanity”. The priest who supervises him in a parish in Isère deplores the fact that he hires, without warning, young girls to help him supervise groups of boys.
In 1955, a trip to the United States by the now famous man was cut short after two women reported having received sexual propositions from him. The Church archives say nothing: these facts are known through the notebooks kept by the philosopher Jacques Maritain, who organized the trip. From then on, letters from Mgr Villot, then director of the secretary general of the episcopate, warned his counterparts when Abbot Pierre travels: “Let us avoid making public compliments to him.” “Gravity” However, the facts alleged against the founder of Emmaus, “his numerous moral accidents”, are not otherwise qualified. The future Cardinal Villot fears “that all this could, one day or another, become known and that public opinion would then be very surprised to see that the Catholic hierarchy has maintained its confidence in Abbot Pierre.”
In 1959, the Vatican intervened: a letter from the nuncio in France opposed a trip by Henri Grouès to Canada, a trip which finally took place, and during which he was again accused of sexual assault. As for Emmaüs, “a whole generation (that of the beginning) knew that Abbé Pierre was slipping,” testified a person close to the movement, heard by the independent firm Egaé.