Pope says sex abuse is ‘demonic’ as he weighs in on new scandal in French church
Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, was one of France’s most beloved public figures. The founder of the international Emmaus Community for the poor, Abbé Pierre had served as part of France’s conscience since the 1950s, when he persuaded Parliament to pass a law — still on the books — forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter.
Emmaus International this week revealed that it had substantiated 17 more claims against its late founder, adding to the seven that were made public in July when it revealed the claims amounted to “sexual assault or sexual harassment.” The scandal set off outrage among French Catholics, for whom Abbe Pierre was a hero and icon.
Francis called Abbe Pierre a “terrible sinner” but that such a “shameful crime” was also the “human condition.”
According to Emmaus, the new 17 cases involve women who reported behavior similar to that reported by the first seven victims, extending the abuse allegations from 1950s and 2000s. Their claims involved “unsolicited breast touching and forced kisses,” as well as repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person, sexual penetration with an adult woman and sexual contact with a child, according to Emmaus.
The case of Abbe Pierre is the latest involving a revered, charismatic Catholic leader who turns out to have been a sexual predator. It is similar in some ways to the scandal involving another French icon, Jean Vanier, who founded the L’Arche movement to care for people with disabilities and was later found to have engaged in misconduct with adult women.
Francis had to confront a similar case during his visit to East Timor. Timorese Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent campaign for independence, but the Vatican revealed in 2022 that he had been sanctioned for sexually abusing young boys. Belo was allowed by St. John Paul II to retire quietly in 2002, and the Holy See has never revealed what it knew and when about his crimes.
https://apnews.com/article/pope-abuse-ab...64fe71e927
Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, was one of France’s most beloved public figures. The founder of the international Emmaus Community for the poor, Abbé Pierre had served as part of France’s conscience since the 1950s, when he persuaded Parliament to pass a law — still on the books — forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter.
Emmaus International this week revealed that it had substantiated 17 more claims against its late founder, adding to the seven that were made public in July when it revealed the claims amounted to “sexual assault or sexual harassment.” The scandal set off outrage among French Catholics, for whom Abbe Pierre was a hero and icon.
Francis called Abbe Pierre a “terrible sinner” but that such a “shameful crime” was also the “human condition.”
According to Emmaus, the new 17 cases involve women who reported behavior similar to that reported by the first seven victims, extending the abuse allegations from 1950s and 2000s. Their claims involved “unsolicited breast touching and forced kisses,” as well as repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person, sexual penetration with an adult woman and sexual contact with a child, according to Emmaus.
The case of Abbe Pierre is the latest involving a revered, charismatic Catholic leader who turns out to have been a sexual predator. It is similar in some ways to the scandal involving another French icon, Jean Vanier, who founded the L’Arche movement to care for people with disabilities and was later found to have engaged in misconduct with adult women.
Francis had to confront a similar case during his visit to East Timor. Timorese Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent campaign for independence, but the Vatican revealed in 2022 that he had been sanctioned for sexually abusing young boys. Belo was allowed by St. John Paul II to retire quietly in 2002, and the Holy See has never revealed what it knew and when about his crimes.
https://apnews.com/article/pope-abuse-ab...64fe71e927
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
