President of the Conference des Eveques de France (CEF-French Bishops Conference) Eric de Moulins-Beaufort reacts as he attends the Pope’s departure ceremony at the Ajaccio airport, on the French island of Corsica, on December 15, 2024. Eric de Moulins Beaufort announced during a radio news show on January 17, 2025 he had taken “legal action” to call for an investigation to be open regarding the accusations of sexual abuse against the late founder of Emmaus International, Abbe Pierre. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)

PARIS — France’s Catholic Church on Friday said that it had asked prosecutors to investigate a raft of sexual abuse accusations against a charity icon who was showered with accolades during his lifetime.

Born Henri Groues, French clergyman Abbe Pierre was widely admired as a friend to the poverty-stricken and homeless when he died aged 94 in 2007.

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But in recent months, multiple allegations that he committed sexual abuse have shattered his saintly image and left the two charities he founded desperately trying to dissociate themselves from him.

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The church has been under huge pressure to explain its silence surrounding Abbe Pierre’s behavior.

Following fresh allegations of sexual abuse this week, the head of the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, speaking to broadcaster RMC, said that he had “referred the matter to courts” this week.

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He said he had requested that the Paris public prosecutor “consider opening an investigation into Abbe Pierre.”

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In a statement, the CEF said that the reason for referring the matter to the courts was to prosecute those guilty of a “failure to denounce rape and sexual assault of vulnerable people and minors.”

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The aim of the probe would also be to establish if there were “other possible victims or accomplices,” said de Moulins-Beaufort.

‘Predator’

He said that the public prosecutor’s office has more resources than the commission of enquiry that was set up by Emmaus — one of the two charities he founded — to investigate the accusations.

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We must “get to the bottom of the truth,” said the head of the CEF, expressing his “horror” following new revelations published by specialist firm Egae this week.

After a first battery of allegations shocked the nation last July, the Abbe Pierre Foundation and Emmaus asked Egae to gather further testimony about their founder.

According to a report published in September, 17 more people have made accusations of sexual violence against the French monk.

According to a new report published on Monday, the priest is the target of more accusations of sexual violence, including a “penetrative sexual act” involving a boy.

The latest accusations have brought to 33 the total number of testimonies against Abbe Pierre.

“Taken all together, this paints the picture of a predator,” Tarek Daher of Emmaus France said on Monday.

‘Appalled’

However, legal action is likely to come up against a number of obstacles, given that evidence of abuse dates from the 1950s into the 2000s.

Many welcomed the announcement.

“I think that justice must be done. We’re not above it, even if Abbe Pierre is an icon for the Catholic religion,” said Luc Pellen, 69.

“We have to see this through to the end in the interests of the French people and Catholics.”

Adrienne Oster, 77, said she was “appalled.”

Humpert, who has been raising sheep in northwestern Germany’s Marienmuenster since 1986 in a bid to save endangered breeds, has since lost 140 of her 500 sheep.

“First of all, we want to know why this was hidden and why this gentleman was lecturing us,” she said.

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Until last July, he remained a familiar sight on charity shop posters and in metro stations urging French people to think of the poor.

After the revelations, French officials across the country have sought to cleanse streets, schools, and parks of his name.

On Friday, the head of the CEF encouraged anyone who may have suffered sexual violence at the hands of Abbe Pierre to come forward.

De Moulins Beaufort has said that claims of sexual abuse against Abbe Pierre were not public knowledge within the institution, even though some bishops may have been aware of his behavior.

In September, the church opened its archives on the clergyman decades early.

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Letters and notes from a thin file seen by AFP refer to “problematic” behavior without providing any further explanation.balato8

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