People: Abbé Pierre
8/5/1912 - 1/22/2007
A truly extraordinary life driven by humility and love for the disenfranchised, but tarnished by the multiple sexual abuse allegations that surfaced after his death…
“Il n’y a pas de bonheur à vivre que pour soi. Il faut partager.” “There is no joy in living for oneself alone. One must share” ~Abbé Pierre
I learned of this brilliant and flawed human being when a French friend of mine spoke of him in all his complexity as we were walking in the vines. It left me hungry to know more….
The story of Abbé Pierre is arresting and disturbing. It is also beautiful. It is full to overflowing, but in its totality it is alarming, unsettling and troubling when all is said and done.
To begin, how wonderful that a person such as this humble man has come to pass through our weary world to do so much good for so many. In some ways he was full of all the possible benevolence you can squeeze into one human being and then some. A man dedicated to the poor, homeless and those seeking refuge from war, hate and persecution. A man selfless, humble and generous of spirit, devoted to a life of simplicity and sacrifice. A life bequeathed to giving and easing the miseries of others. His world was inoculated with a selfless love for humanity, seething to make a difference to those most disenfranchised. A lofty and beautiful goal, but in this case it is impossible to speak of Abbé Pierre’s goodness without recognizing his many deeply serious and painful flaws that only came to light after his death. He is now seen by many as a humanitarian giant who used his position, his charisma and his authority to abuse and silence others.
Abbé Pierre was voted the most popular French person 17 years in a row, and in 2005 voted the 3rd greatest French person of all time, but this was all before the allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and forced sexual acts surfaced which were subsequently validated by the Egaé Group. The Egaé group is a French consulting agency commissioned by Emmaüs and the Abbé Pierre Foundation in mid-2024 to investigate the many allegations of sexual abuse against Abbé Pierre. After exhausted investigations the Egaé Group reported a total of 33 known alleged sexual victims with claims spanning from the 1950s to early 2000s. Their work catalyzed major institutional responses as they documented and corroborated decades long testimonies against Abbé Pierre. A once a beloved French national hero and symbol of Christian compassion, now fallen from grace for all time.
A snapshot of his life…
Abbé Pierre, was born Henri Joseph Groués on August 5th,1912, in Lyon, France to a very wealthy privileged and devout Catholic family. He was one of 8 children who all lived a strict, disciplined and religious life, but also comfortable and privileged. As an adult he renounced his personal inheritance and all of his family’s wealth, donating all his material possessions to the poor and homeless.
At the early age of 12 he showed deep interest and longing for a religious and spiritual life and at the age of 16 he became actively engaged in living a life of humility and altruism after participating in a youth pilgrimage to Rome. Then at about the age of 16 he began his journey to live a religious life. He joined the Capuchin Order of the Franciscans as a Novice and took the name Brother Phillipe. Unfortunately due to failing health and the starkness and austere conditions of monastic life, he left the monastery before taking his final vows. He then went on to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1938 at the age of 26.
In the summer of 1939, a few months before the invasion of Poland in September and the start of WWll he being recently ordained he was assigned to serve at the Cathédral Notre-Dame in Grenoble, France. Then, shortly after his move to Grenoble he became active with the French Resistance. He developed false identities, of which one was Abbé Pierre, to insulate himself from discovery by the Gestapo and police of the French Vichy regime. He fought Nazi oppression by actively working to protect the Jewish children whose parents had been arrested. He continued to aid Jews and anyone in danger and at risk of persecution under German rule in France. He forged documents, found and established safe houses, and organized escape routes from Grenoble across to the border to Switzerland. Of note, Jacques de Gaulle, the younger brother of Charles de Gaulle, and his wife, Jeanne were among the many Abbé Pierre helped to escape to safety out of the reach of the Gestapo. In this effort to move people across the Swiss border, he established and led a group of maquis (local group of partisans) in the Vercors Plateau and Chartreuse Mountains. It is impossible to know the exact number of lives saved due to his direct and indirect efforts in the Resistance, but I have read that there may have been hundreds to thousands of people who were saved crossing into Switzerland led by the French Resistance efforts.
Abbé Pierre was also widely responsible for the efforts made to protect French citizens from serving in the Nazi program “Service de travail obligatoire” (STO), a German program of mandatory enlistment. This encompassed deportation of French workers to hard labor in German work camps, where they were used in the German work force to aid and support the German war effort. To thwart this program, he created a refugee camp in Grenoble for French citizens who resisted enlistment in the STO. He was eventually discovered and arrested in 1944 near the end of the war. After his release he fled to Spain for a short period of time, before returning to France, where he became involved in French politics when he was elected to the National Assembly in 1945.
In 1949 he founded a secular charitable foundation named Emmaus. He bought an old run down neglected house located about 11 km from the eastern suburbs of Paris in Neuilly-Plaisance. It was in this house and at that moment, the first Emmaus community was born. The Emmaus foundation was charged with securing basic shelter, safety, clothing, food and cultivating a welcoming community for the poor, homeless and those seeking refuge from persecution. This is at the very heart of the Emmaus movement and Pierre Abbé’s unwavering purpose; to shelter, feed and protect the homeless and disenfranchised of France. In 1951 Pierre Abbé left politics and devoted his efforts to growing the Emmaus full time.
In rhe beginning growing years the Emmaus movement remained in tact and thriving, but struggling. Then in 1954 the movement began to gain momentum with a significant influx of financial support from the French citizens at large after an especially harsh, cold winter when many homeless died of exposure to the cold and starvation. This was the moment when Pierre made his famous heart rendering appeal to the French public via radio and the Press. His speech was successful in bringing the harsh, ugly dark realities into the light, igniting a fire of support for the French homeless and the Emmaus movement. Here is an excerpt of that famous speech delivered on February 1,1954.
“Abbé Pierre’s call for an uprising of kindness”
“My friends, come and help… A woman froze to death tonight, on the pavement of Sebastopol Boulevard, clutching the eviction notice which the day before made her homeless … Every night, more than 2,000 people endure the cold, without food, without bread, more than one almost naked. To face this horror, emergency lodgings are not enough. Hear me; we have to act now and open aid centers for the homeless. There is no time to waste.” - Abbé Pierre
Thanks to Abbé Pierre, Emmaus continues today as a secular, not for profit charity maintaining its primary mission to fight homelessness and poverty and many other charitable services. There are ~400 Emmaus organizations in 44 countries all due to the vision of this one extraordinary man.
Abbé Pierre steadily remained the spokesman for the homeless and continuously went on to champion charitable endeavors throughout his lifetime. His guiding principle of love for all, but especially for those shattered by life’s miseries and misfortunes was unwavering. Again, given all of these beautiful acts of care and charity, what was revealed posthumously remains a deep black and painful wound for all those he abused and his legacy at large.
It is also important to note that Abbé Pierre, a deeply religious and spiritual man, was not always closely aligned with the Vatican’s teachings and doctrines. His socialist leaning beliefs put him at odds with the church and he often criticized the Vatican for its opulent spending and lavish lifestyle. He did not maintain celibacy, and as was stated previously it was revealed that he was a serial sexual abuser. He believed that women should be allowed to be ordained, that clergy should be allowed to be married, that same sex couples should be able to adopt, and that contraception should be supported. His views on Catholic dogma can be read in detail in his final book, “Why, Oh Why, My God?”.
No longer remembered solely as a great humanitarian figure, but also as a very complex and flawed man whose legacy will be deeply and severely marred for all time by his serial acts of sexual abuse.
Abbé Pierre died of a lung infection at Val de Grâce military hospital in Paris on January 22nd, 2007 at the age of 94.
RIP Abbé Pierre
