How the Abbé Pierre Foundation and Emmaüs can overcome their founder’s cumbersome legacy
In this article, originally published in The Conversation France, Ludovic Cailluet, EDHEC Professor, Associate Dean, EDHEC Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship, and his co-authors look at the way in which the various organisations caught up in the turmoil are taking the difficult decision to abandon the tutelary figure of Abbé Pierre. This distancing is tantamount to parting with a very important historical and symbolic resource...
On July 17, 2024, a press release from the associations Emmaüs France, Emmaüs International and the Abbé Pierre Foundation sent shockwaves through the public. It reported the release of an independent report authored by the Egaé group, a company specialising in gender equality, workplace discrimination and violence. The investigation unveiled the dark side of a man who had long been ranked as “the most beloved figure in France.”
Henry Grouès (1912-2007), better known as Abbé Pierre and the founder of Emmaüs – an international charitable organisation founded in France in 1949 – allegedly sexually assaulted numerous women from the 1950s into the 2000s. These revelations have profoundly impacted the constellation of groups associated with Abbé Pierre and Emmaüs, exposing the challenges an organisation faces when using a historical figure as a symbolic and strategic resource while also attempting to distance itself from such a figure.
Slew of new abuse accusations against French charity icon Abbe Pierre (France 24).
Abbé Pierre: A crucial symbolic resource
In 2018, we published an article on how organisations use history as a strategic resource that focused on the case of Emmaüs, which has been closely tied to Abbé Pierre’s personality since its inception. The life of this priest, the saga of Emmaüs’ founding and various symbolic elements associated with Abbé Pierre’s image, such as his attire and public persona, have supported the organisation even after his death. Until early September, the logo and name of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, a core part of Emmaüs, bore testimony to this connection.
Strategic historical resources are both assets for organisational legitimacy and a battleground for power struggles. Unlike material or financial assets, they are shaped by both internal and external agents, making them difficult for an organisation to fully control. The public and legendary aspects of historical resources hinder privatisation or monopoly: Abbé Pierre, in essence, belongs to everyone.
Building and controlling a narrative from historical resources
Based on these observations, we offer insights for using historical resources strategically. Our model addresses four dimensions to handle the challenges posed by strategic historical resources: appropriation, ownership, maintenance and distancing.
Appropriation involves organising scattered elements to create a coherent, simple historical narrative. For Emmaüs, this includes the frequent use of Abbé Pierre’s 1954 winter appeal and his image to reinforce the organisation’s identity and mission. Emmaüs also faced challenges controlling the use of Abbé Pierre’s image, widely regarded as a public good in France. The organisation had to implement mechanisms such as intellectual property rights to protect this resource. Maintenance refers to preserving, enriching and transmitting the characteristics and values associated with the historical resource over time. For Emmaüs, this involved upholding the values advocated by Abbé Pierre, even after his death, to strengthen internal cohesion.
Finally, distancing is about knowing when to step back from the historical resource to avoid idolatry, organisational rigidity (and, in this case, liability). Emmaüs has had to distance itself from Abbé Pierre in the past to allow for organisational evolution while still acknowledging his historical contribution.
Distancing from the historical resource
In the context of our archival analysis, we had already observed that since the 1950s, the organisation, or some of its stakeholders, had tried several times to distance themselves from the historical resource that Abbé Pierre represented. While we had not identified the sexual assault allegations mentioned in Egaé’s report, several sources indicated that Abbé Pierre may not have adhered to the vows of chastity associated with his ecclesiastical status as early as the 1950s. The challenge of distancing from Abbé Pierre for the Emmaüs constellation has not been solely a reputational issue, as the organisation, nonreligious and financially independent, was relatively detached from the Catholic Church and its hierarchy.
The main concern was more about controlling an individual who was resistant to managing structures or following rules. Furthermore, in the 1990s, Abbé Pierre posed problems for Emmaüs by associating with revisionist historian Roger Garaudy and publicly aligning with “competing” associations such as Droit au logement, whose methods, if not objectives, differed diametrically from those of Emmaüs. By the summer of 2024, it seems that the model we proposed has come to fruition and even intensified, as the Abbé Pierre Foundation begins to distance itself from Abbé Pierre’s image. This distancing was recently dramatically amplified following the new revelations shared by the organisation in early September 2024.
Various Strategies of Distancing
By analysing 43 articles published in the French press between April and August 2024, we can outline the key messages used by Emmaüs and the foundation, advised by a crisis communication firm. These messages, evident in the statements from current and former leaders, can be summarised into six distancing levers:
| Distancing levers | Responses from the organisation | Strategic objectives |
| Acknowledgement and distancing | Emmaus acknowledges the seriousness of the accusations, in particular by affirming the commitment to support the victims, and while seeking to distance itself from Abbé Pierre as a person. | Insist that the Emmaus movement must not be reduced to its founder and that charity work must continue regardless of the faults committed by him. |
| Surprise and shock | The Emmaus leaders express their astonishment and shock at the revelations, although some admit that there were previous rumours of problematic behaviour by Abbé Pierre. | Demonstrating a recent collective awareness and willingness to face facts. |
| Medical and psychological language | The directors talk about Abbé Pierre’s “impulses”, describing his behaviour as ‘illness’ for which he would have undergone “treatment”. | Attacking Abbé Pierre’s personal responsibility by placing it in the context of mental illness, while minimising his actions by speaking of “imprudences” |
| Focus on Emmaus’ mission | The statements emphasise the importance of Emmaus’ mission, recalling that the movement was founded to combat poverty, and that this mission must not be hijacked by scandal. | Reaffirm the priority of helping the most disadvantaged. |
| Call for transparency and justice | The Emmaus leaders insist on the need for transparency in order to shed full light on the accusations. | Affirm their willingness to cooperate fully with the authorities and support the victims. |
| Defending the positive legacy | While acknowledging the faults, the leaders defend Abbé Pierre’s positive legacy, highlighting his contributions to the fight against poverty and exclusion. | Striving to separate the man’s wrongdoing from the lasting and beneficial impact of his work. |
From distancing to a complete break
These points reflect a communication strategy aimed at preserving the integrity of the Emmaüs movement while addressing demands for justice and recognition for victims. The distancing from its historical resource is clear, but Abbé Pierre remains as an underlying historical reference. However, in early September 2024, the situation escalated with the publication of additional, even more serious testimonies.
The Egaé report, published on September 4, documents several cases of sexual assault, including one involving a vulnerable individual and another involving a child, as well as instances of rape.
Following these new revelations, the Abbé Pierre Foundation announced a series of measures, planning to completely abandon Abbé Pierre’s image in its operations and communications. The three organisations have taken radical steps to distance themselves from their historical resource, revising their memorial policies. The Abbé Pierre Foundation will change its name, Emmaüs France is considering removing “Founder Abbé Pierre” from its logo and the memorial site/museum dedicated to Abbé Pierre will remain permanently closed.
More revelations may yet emerge, as numerous “historical purges” have already been announced. While the organisation’s fights for their survival in distancing from their founder, they must rely on the values that bind their community of volunteers, employees and donors to help them navigate what can be described as an “organisational mourning.”
This article by Ludovic Cailluet, Professeur à l'EDHEC, Doyen Associé, EDHEC Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship, Hélène Gorge, Maître de conférences, Lille University and Nil Özçaglar-Toulouse, Professor at Lille University, has been republished from The Conversation under licence Creative Commons. Read the original article.
Photo by Chad Madden svia Unsplash
