French church unlocks archives early on priest accused of sexual abuse

RFI

12 September 2024 at 10:46 am·1-min read

Amid accusations of sexual abuse against late priest Abbé Pierre, France's Catholic church has decided to open its archives on the once venerated figure decades earlier than planned.

The Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) announced on Thursday that it would make its archives on Abbé Pierre public without waiting the usual 75 years after his death.

The priest, who died in 2007, stands accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

While the church had not been due to open its records on him until 2082, it decided to make them available sooner to investigators, journalists and researchers – in particular the independent experts commissioned by Abbé Pierre's charity Emmaus to look into how its founder's alleged abuse went unchallenged for more than 50 years.

The archives consist of "a fairly thin file" with "a few letters" which show that the Central Office of Cardinals at the time "took note of the behaviour" of the priest, the head of the bishops' conference, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, told Catholic radio stations.

The documents indicate that concerns about Abbé Pierre were raised as far back as the 1950s, when "the church sought to help him by imposing a psychiatric stay in Switzerland" and assigning a church worker to accompany him, he said on RCF and Radio Notre-Dame.

"Apparently, Abbé Pierre always managed to get around this. But I wouldn't say that the church did nothing," de Moulins-Beaufort said.

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