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“This work made it possible to collect the testimonies of seven women”
The alleged acts were committed between the end of the 1970s and 2005. It was in particular Egaé, an expert firm in the prevention of sexual violence, which made it possible to trace them. “Our organizations salute the courage of the people who testified and made it possible, through their words, to bring these realities to light,” the associations specified while emphasizing that “this work made it possible to collect the testimonies of seven women who report behavior that may be similar to sexual assault or acts of sexual harassment committed by Abbé Pierre (…)”.
“Intolerable” acts roundly condemned
“We know that these intolerable acts have left their mark and we stand alongside them,” they continue. “These revelations shake up our structures” and “these actions profoundly change the way we look at a man known above all for his fight against poverty, misery and exclusion”. Since then, a collection, support and testimony system, “strictly confidential, aimed at people who have been victims or witnesses of unacceptable behavior on the part of Abbé Pierre” has therefore been put in place.
The Catholic Church in turn expresses itself on Abbé Pierre
In France, the Catholic Church broke its silence on X after learning “with pain” of the entire situation. While waiting to discover for itself the contents of the report, the Conference of Bishops of France wishes to “assure the victims of its deep compassion and shame that such acts could be committed by a priest”. “Abbot Pierre had, in our country and in the world, a remarkable impact (…),” she wrote. “But its position cannot dispense with the necessary work of truth, which Emmaüs has just carried out with clarity and courage, by listening to the complainants and by carrying out this investigation, the report of which has just been published”.
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