Slew of new abuse accusations against French charity icon Abbe Pierre

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00:00The secrets were covered up until the end of the abbot's life in France, where he left

00:05behind a legacy as a friend to the poor.

00:08Yet archived correspondence, published in a Radio France investigation, show that the

00:12church knew that Abbé Pierre was accused of sexual abuse as far back as the 1950s.

00:19In particular, during a number of month-long tours in the US and Canada.

00:23In 1955, a student who'd helped organise Abbé Pierre's stay in the United States wrote,

00:28I saw so many things during the trip, ways in which the father acted as an individual.

00:34The abbot later wrote him a threatening letter.

00:36You promised to stop meddling.

00:38Know that not one recurrence will go unanswered, and if necessary my answers will be brutal,

00:43surgical.

00:44Four years later in Quebec, the police was called following complaints against the priest

00:49that the affair was hushed up.

00:51On his return to France, Abbé Pierre defended himself in a letter to a cardinal.

00:56At the end of 1957, the church sent the priest to a hospital in Switzerland, officially for

01:01a hernia, but people close to him say it was over concerns of a sex scandal.

01:06It would take decades until the first allegations came to light, in July, shocking France.

01:12Further testimonies gathered by the charities founded by Abbé Pierre detail more allegations,

01:17including repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person and sexual contact with a child.

01:24Abbé Pierre was a priest who could improve his image, because he was a priest of the

01:28voiceless, the priest of the homeless, and so we wonder if that isn't also why the church

01:33took such precautions with him.

01:35In any case, it's clear that at the time, these matters were not a subject of discussion.

01:41Radio France also interviewed a documentary maker, who witnessed a crude conversation

01:46between the abbot and a young woman.

01:51After a few seconds of conversation, Abbé Pierre asked the woman if she ever thought

01:54of him.

01:55The young woman replied, a little embarrassed, yes, occasionally she would think of him.

02:00He then responded, do you touch yourself when you think of me?

02:04Seventeen years after his death, the latest claims have prompted the Abbé Pierre Foundation

02:09to announce it will change its name.

02:11A memorial to the priest will also be permanently closed.

02:15Reiterating their total support for the victims, these charities have also set up an independent

02:20committee to explain the failings that allowed Abbé Pierre to act as he did for more than

02:2450 years.

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