As the list of Abbé Pierre’s victims grows, Véronique Fayet, former president of Secours Catholique, insists on the Church’s lack of reactivity, which she considers “not severe enough”.
24 women accuse Abbé Pierre of sexual violence. These recent revelations to the general public have prompted Pope Francis, the highest authority in the Catholic Church, to reveal that the Vatican had been informed of this violence “after the death” of the priest in 2007. Questioned on the microphone of RTLSunday September 15, Véronique Fayet, former president of Secours Catholique, assures that the vigilance “was not sufficient nor sufficiently severe” around Abbé Pierre.
The Church’s fault
According to Véronique Fayet, the Church should have been more vigilant. In addition to assuring that Abbé Pierre “is an icon for all French people, especially Catholics, who failed, who betrayed us”, she considers that “the Church has made a mistake”. However, she believes that “we cannot judge the 1950s with today’s eyes”, adding that “it is extremely painful to think that there was also a form of complicity from a part of the institution”.
This complicity in cases of sexual crimes within the Church was revealed in 2021 by the “Sauvé report” of the CIASE (Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church). Véronique Fayet deplores this observation, stating that “in the case of predatory and abusive priests and perpetrators of sexual crimes, there was unfortunately often a form of complicity from the institution”.