Scandal involving Abbé Pierre: Former French national hero exposed as a sex offender

The former national hero of France, Abbé Pierre, a Roman Catholic priest and icon of the fight against homelessness, is posthumously at the center of a severe abuse scandal. In France, he was so revered that television viewers once voted him the third greatest Frenchman of all time. Schools, streets, and public parks were named after him, and even after his death in 2007 at the age of 94, he was considered by many to be the nation's moral compass. However, in the past two months, a shocking picture of Abbé Pierre has emerged: he is accused of sexual abuse. Years after his death, numerous allegations of sexual harassment and abuse have suddenly come to light — a dramatic fall from his pedestal of virtue. These revelations have left deep scars on the social justice movement he initiated. They raise uncomfortable questions about who knew about his behavior towards women and shake a nation that once viewed him as a symbol of purity and empathy. "The image of purity, solidarity, and compassion that he once had is crumbling," explains Axelle Brodiez-Dolino, a historian at the French National Center for Scientific Research, who has written a book about Abbé Pierre and Emmaus, one of the charitable organizations he founded. "This does not change the good he did in the past," she adds. "But there was a dark side to him that was completely unknown to the general public." Two reports, commissioned by the charitable organizations and published in July and this month, reveal that Abbé Pierre allegedly sexually harassed or abused at least two dozen women between the 1950s and 2000s — mostly in France but also abroad, including in the United States. The allegations come from the women themselves, their family members, or witnesses. One woman reported that Abbé Pierre groped and kissed her in the 1970s when she was 8 and 9 years old. Another stated that he forced her in 1989 to watch him masturbate and to perform oral sex on him. Another woman indicated that Abbé Pierre abused her after she sought help with housing in the early 1990s.