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.
Regarding how much was known within the church, he said he was "unable to say" who knew what.
"Some bishops certainly knew a certain number of facts, but which ones exactly?" he said. "A historical inquiry will be needed to reveal that, and I strongly support the inquiry that Emmaus has just opened."
French charity turns its back on founding father accused of sexual abuse
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De Moulins-Beaufort pointed out that Abbé Pierre "did not live in an ecclesiastical framework", but with Emmaus – meaning that the charity holds most of the surviving records on him.
"It is above all through this that we must try to understand," de Moulins-Beaufort said.
Born in 1912, Abbé Pierre was for long celebrated as a hero in France for his dedication to the poor.
He founded the first Emmaus community to help homeless men in Paris in 1949, and turned into a household name when, in the especially cold winter of 1954, he made a passionate plea for France to remember the most vulnerable.
Just last year he was the subject of an adulatory biopic marking the 70th anniversary of his famous speech.
But in July, Emmaus revealed allegations of sexual assault from seven women to the media.
More testimonies emerged last week, including accusations of rape and abuse of a young girl.
Emmaus has since tasked an independent commission with "explaining the dysfunctions" that allowed Abbé Pierre "to act as he did for more than 50 years". It is also looking at how to compensate the victims.
Meanwhile the charitable Abbé Pierre Foundation is to change its name, and a memorial centre in Normandy, where the priest resided for many years, will close permanently.
The board of Emmaus France will also to vote on whether to remove the founder's name from its logo.
