A year after the first revelations concerning Father Pierre, twelve new victims of sexual violence of which seven minors were identified. 20 Minutes take stock.
What happened?
“Since January 2025, the lost group has received information concerning twelve people who have been victims of Father Pierre. Seven of these testimonies concern minor people “at the time of the events, explains the specialized cabinet mandated by Emmaüs on Wednesday to shed light on this case.
Long iconic figure of the defense of the deprived, Henri Grouès, who died in 2007, is now targeted by 45 accusations of sexual violence.
What are the new accusations?
Among the anonymized testimonies, the report, put online on the site of Emmaus France, quotes those of two sisters, one of which “reported a masturbation of Father Pierre on his sex when she had just been 11 years old”, in the mid -1970s. Her sister “told her to have undergone forced fellatio at his 15th anniversary”, which is rape.
Another victim described in an email “at least three facts of sexual violence when he was 10 years old” in the 1990s, according to the activity report of the listening line of him dedicated to the victims of Father Pierre.
Another still, aged 17 at the time, “underwent contact between her thighs, under her skirt” when she was traveling by train in the Wagon of Father Pierre in 1953. When she arrived, the sisters who welcomed her “told her that she had imagined everything,” reports the cabinet.
What will happen now?
For these victims, Emmaüs and the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) “jointly decided to set up a financial compensation system”, explains Emmaüs in a separate statement.
This device, which wants to “mark a material recognition of the violence and consequences suffered”, will be carried by the Recognition and Repair Commission (CRR), an body set up by the CEF after the revelations, in 2021, on pedocrime in the Church since the 1950s. Operational from September 2025, the device will be “entirely funded by the equity of the Emmaus movement and those of the CEF”.
The principle is that of “shared responsibility”, at least from 1954, the date on which the Abbé Pierre was associated both with Emmaüs and the church. “Before this date, CEF will assume this charge alone,” says the weekly life.
What support for the victims?
The other repair body set up by the Church, the INIRR, was committed to “taking charge of the repair for the three victims of Father Pierre who have already contacted it”, assures Emmaüs. The CRR and the INRIRR collect the testimonies of victims and offer a financial compensation of up to 60,000 euros.
In this “transparency work”, Emmaüs recalls having created a research committee whose report is expected “in early 2027”. “From now on, a new phase opens, with a complete device at the service of the victims,” said the press release.
What consequences on the Abbé Pierre Foundation?
This scandal, which increased over the three reports published in July 2024, September 2024 and January 2025, had deep repercussions for Emmaüs as for the Church of France. The Abbé Pierre Foundation, which the priest had created with relatives in 1987, changed his name on January 25, to become the “foundation for the housing of the disadvantaged”, then a logo in March.
Emmaüs France definitively closed the place of memory dedicated to the priest, in Esteville (Seine-Maritime). And hundreds of streets, squares and buildings have been tested.
On the Church of France on the Church of France, the open archives in mid-September showed how, from the 1950s, the episcopal hierarchy had silenced on behavior deemed “problematic” but never named. According to a survey book published in April, the Vatican was aware “in the fall of 1955” of the actions of Henri Grouès.
Our file on Father Pierre
But despite the CEF’s requests, no criminal investigation will be opened to establish responsibilities in these multiple accusations, because the priest died in 2007, and the non-denunciation of the facts is covered by the prescription.
