Pierre abbot

Henri Grouès , known as the Abbot Pierre , born the August 5th 1912 with Lyon and dead the January 22nd 2007 with Paris, is a catholic Prêtre French, resistant then Député, founder of the Mouvement Emmaüs (laic charitable organization intended to help the Pauvre S, excluded and Réfugié S) and Fondation Abbé Pierre for the housing of underprivileged the. Surveys indicated it seventeen times “personality preferred of the French” of 1989 to 2003.

Biography

Marie Joseph Henry Henri Grouès was born the August 5th 1912 in Lyon (IVe) in a middle-class family easy and pious from trader in Soie Lyon be born, originating, on the paternal side, the hamlet of Fouillouse in Saint-Paul-on-Ubaye, village highest of the Alp-of-High-Provence located at the bottom of the Vallée of Ubaye, and Tarare in the the Rhone on the maternal side. It is the fifth of eight children. He was baptized with the Saint-Eucher church, in the 4th district of Lyon. He passes his childhood to Irigny, close to Lyon. At 12 years, it accompanies his father with the secular Confrérie by the Hospitaliers watchers, where the middle-class are made hairdressers barbers for the Pauvre S.

Raise in Externat Saint-Joseph (current Lycée Saint-Marc), it belonged to the Scouts de France, in which it was totémisé “méditatif Beaver”. In 1928 at 16 years, after a “love at first sight with God” according to his own words, it wants to enter the orders Franciscain S, however it will have to wait to have 17 years and half. On this subject he declared “One told me beautiful child, perhaps even a little society man, however, the following day I will be Moine. ”

Entry in the orders

In 1931, it makes profession at the capuchins where it pronounces its wishes. It gives up this year its share of the family inheritance, and gives all that it has with caritative works. In Religion, Henri Grouès becomes brother Philippe . In 1932, it enters to the Cloître, the Couvent of Crest where it spends seven years of religious austerity.

It is ordered priest on August 24th 1938 in the vault of the Saint-Marc college. In April 1939, it becomes Vicaire with the Saint-Joseph Basilica of Grenoble.

Second world war

It is mobilized like Sous-officier in the regiment of the train of the crews, in December 1939, at the beginning of the Second world war.

According to its Biography official exit of the official files of the Ministry for National defense, " vicar with the Notre-Dame cathedral of Grenoble, it collects children Juif S whose families were stopped at the time of the raids of the foreign Jews in Southern zone, in August 1942 ". The Pierre Abbot delivered his account, very early, in a given conference on April 23rd, 1945, the framework of the " conferences of the information" , with the Palate of Chaillot.

The same year, it makes pass in Suisse the youngest brother of the Général de Gaulle, Jacques, like his wife. It takes part in the creation of maquis of which it is one of the leaders in the Massif of Vercors and the Massif of Chartreuse. It is at that time that there meets Lucie Coutaz, which hides it under a false name, and will remain her private secretary until her death in 1983. She is regarded as the Co-founder of the Mouvement Emmaüs

It helps refractories with the Service of obligatory work (STO). It takes the name of Abbé Pierre in clandestinity. In 1944, it is stopped by the German armed with Cambo-the-Baths, in the Yrénées-Atlantiques, but is slackened and passes in Spain then joined via Gibraltar the Général de Gaulle to Algiers in French Algérie . It becomes Aumônier of the Marine on the Jean Bart with Casablanca (Morocco) and becomes an important figure of the Résistance.

Its actions in resistance are worth the to him Military Cross with palm with the release. Of its last experiment and dramas of which it was pilot, it must, as many other resistant of any edge which côtoyé it, its political commitment to restore a worthy company founded on the fundamental human rights, but also its deep determination to be acted for causes which it believes right, including sometimes in the illegality, and to mobilize around him to make change the established laws and the indifferent glances.

Political career

After the war, on the councils of the entourage of De Gaulle, and the approval of the archbishop of Paris, he is elected Député of Meurthe-et-Moselle to both constituent National Assemblies (1945 - 1946), like independent related with the popular Republican movement (MRP) of Résistant S Démocrate Christian S S, then with the National Assembly of 1946 with 1951, where he sits initially center of the group MRP.

In 1947, he is vice-president of the world Confédération, universal federalistic Mouvement (democratic Mondialisation). With Albert Camus and Andre Gide, it founds the support group with Garry Davis, Citoyen of the world, which is opposed to the fast increase national selfishnesses and tears its passport in front of the American embassy.

It disunites political party after “the incident strapping” of Brest of April 1950, having caused the death of the workman Edouard Mazé. In its resignation letter of April 28th, 1950, Why I leave the MRP , it denounces the political and social positions Movement. It joined then the Ligue of the young Republic, movement Christian Socialiste. But, it will not be represented any more with the Parliament at the end of her mandate: its short political career finishes in 1951 and the Pierre Abbot turns over to his vocation first of priest-chaplain and invests himself, with his small revenue of former deputy, in his charitable actions.

Foundation of Emmaüs

It founds in 1949 the Mouvement Emmaüs (in reference to Emmaüs, village of Palestine appearing in an episode of the final chapter of the Évangile according to Luc) of assistance to the disinherited S, particularly with the Sans-abris. It starts thus as of 1950 by founding the community of Emmaüs Neuilly-Pleasure.

The Communautés Emmaüs are financed by the sale of materials and objects of recovery and build residences. It is a laic organization .

In 1952, it will take part in the play “Quitte or double” on Radio-Luxembourg to feed its combat financially, where it will gain 256.000 francs of the time.

In December 2003, on the proposal of Mr. Jean-Paul Carteron President of the Forum of Montana Notches, it receives the PRICE OF the FOUNDATION of the hands of S.A.S the Prince Héréditaire Albert of Monaco. It will be about the only price " profane" accepted by the Pierre Abbot in any life. As he declared it by receiving the modest work of art symbolizing this Price " I will put it on the table where the every day I say my messe".

Winter 1954

See also: History of the fights for housing (France)

The Pierre abbot acquires his notoriety starting from the very cold Hiver of 1954, murderer for the Sans-abri for a “insurrection of kindness”. “Fifty years ago, all hardly left the atrocities of the war. All had had to flee, each one felt near to the refugees. People remembered the suffering and the fear. They were more ready to react. But one does not renew historical facts like that one. ”

He launches the 1954 a memorable call on the antennas of Radio-Luxembourg (future RTL), which will become famous under the name of Appel of the Abbot Pierre .

The following day, the press titrated on “the insurrection of kindness”. The call will bring back 500 franc million in gift S (including 2 million by Charlie Chaplin), a sum enormous for the time and completely unexpected, of the calls and mails which submerged the switchboard of the radio completely, and of the gifts in kind of a volume so immense that it took weeks for simply Trier, to distribute them and find deposits to store them suitably a little everywhere in France.

The call of 1954 attracted voluntary volunteers of all France to help initially with the redistribution, but also to found the first groups claiming this call. Quickly, it had to organize this unhoped-for dash of generosity, and on March 23rd it founds the Compagnons of Emmaüs, community of Chiffonnier S which build residences for the Sans-abri, and accommodate them in their getting not only roof and covered in emergency but also a worthy work. Many companions of Emmaüs will be thus of former homeless people, of all ages, kinds and origins social, saved social forfeiture or sometimes of a death unquestionable and restored in their basic rights, by the communities resulting from this surge of generosity to which they turn over their thanks by their own caritative engagement.

The combat of the Pierre Abbot also allowed the adoption of a law prohibiting the eviction of tenants for wintry time.

Reform doctrines of the Church

In 2005, in its book My God… why? , written with Frederic Lenoir, it declares that it was attracted by young girls, being itself young man and before entering the orders. On this subject, it invites the leaders of Church to reflect on a possible reform of the discipline of the Église in favor of the ordination of the married men. And the opposition of the Pape S Jean-Paul II does not include/understand and Benoît XVI, the ordination of the married men being authorized by the Église in certain rites Orient with. Moreover, he sees in this authorization a means of fighting against the shortage of new ministers of religion of the Church. He also encourages to think of the Ordination women.

In this work, he is not opposed to the Homoparentalité, provided that the children do not suffer any psychological injury or Social and explains in particular its opinion on the fact “that a traditional parental model is not necessarily pledge of Bonheur and of balance for the child”. But he declares himself against the marriage and prefers to substitute a homosexual “alliance for it”. Because according to him, the Homosexual marriage “would create a traumatism and a strong social destabilization. ”

It will react highly following the publication of this book, affirming " not to have read this livre". He will consider to be misled by his old friend (Frederic Lenoir), who would have advanced on his behalf of the remarks ever made.

He is made hoot at the time of one evening mobilization against the AIDS by affirming that the best remedy for this epidemic is fidelity in the love. Not very dogmatic, it is favorable to the condom all the same, affirming “that the problems should be looked at opposite. ”

Public image

The image of large bearded in Cassock, in gross pèlerine and Godillot S which one day offered a Sapeur-pompier forging mill his statute of “legendary hero has to him quickly”, of “just” (according to its will evoked by his/her companions of the Community of Emmaüs, this pèlerine emblematic will return to the Museum of the firemen of Paris).

After the call of 1954 and the exit of the film the Ragmen of Emmaüs devoted to the Pierre abbot, Roland Barthes analyzed in 1957, its face, “which clearly presents all the signs of the apostolate: the good glance, the cut franciscaine, the beard missionary, all that supplemented by Canadian of the worker priest and the cane of the pilgrim. Thus the figures of the legend and those of modernity are joined together. ” Its cut, “balances neutral between the short hair and the hair neglected” approach according to the semiologist the timelessness of holiness, and identifies it with holy François d' Assise. The beard, that of the capuchin and the missionary, symbolizes as for it poverty and the apostolic vocation, as for the father of Foucauld. This face thus evokes at the same time the spirituality of the man, the combat of his priesthood, and its freedom with respect to its hierarchy. For Pierre Bourdieu, the abbot is even a prophet, “emerged in times of food shortage, crisis”, “pren the word with vehemence and indignation. ”

But, Barthes also wonders if “the beautiful one and touching iconography of the Pierre abbot is not the alibi of which a good part of the nation is authorized, once more, to substitute with impunity the signs of charity for the reality of justice. ” This great popularity in France was never contradicted, the public opinion polls of the press placing it indétronablement during ten years (an unequalled record, after having succeeded the commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, hardly eclipsed during one year by one second temporary place charged to the Garaudy business) at the head of the preferred personalities of the French, like those of the Sunday newspaper published several times per annum, until he asks to be withdrawn about it in at the beginning of 2004. It is at the same time a weapon and a cross , he says, to leave the place of the honors to young people.

The Pierre abbot was always based on his image thanks to the media, since his call on Radio-Luxembourg in 1954, until his presence with the National Assembly in January 2006, in favor of law SRU on the social housing. According to Bernard Kouchner, founder of Doctors of the world, he is thus the inventor of the law of media din.

Still these last years, in spite of the disease and the age, it is descended in the street to support the cause of the Pauvre S. It supported the Droit association with housing (DAL). A last combat which still makes the political news in full presidential campaign 2007, where the candidates has a presentiment of themselves to defend a future law on opposable housing pushed by the media action of associations of homeless person, a text whom they want to now name “law Abbé Pierre,” as before him his/her friend Coluche to whom one allotted the law on the gifts to caritative works, another icon popular and media and yet so human of the end of the 20th century remained in the heart of the French, and that the Pierre Abbot had supported before having, him it old man, to succeed to him in his unfinished combat for “ excluded from the division. ”

Discusses

In April 1996, when his/her friend Roger Garaudy is translated into justice for Négationnisme following the publication of his book the myths founders of the Israeli policy , it gives its support “on a purely friendly basis to him” what will be worth to him to be excluded from the committee of honor of LICRA.

The Pierre abbot will dissociate then attempts for to deny, standardize or falsify the Shoah it had been itself pilot. According to the terms of the daily newspaper Humanity , this late reversal does not dissipate however it Malayan.

The historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet declared for its part: I fear that the standpoint of the Pierre abbot opens the valves of a push anti-semite. This polemic, which will meurtrira the Pierre abbot durably, accepted however only little echo near the population and was the occasion for many French to support it while renewing during many years by specifying the support “on a purely friendly basis” brought to the person of Roger Garaudy and not to the remarks which it made in his book, of which it had not taken note.

The conservative of the Museum of the Resistance and the Deportation of the Isere department where Henri Grouès achieved the major part of his actions of resistance for its part declared that the abbot would have deserved ten times to be declared Juste among the Nations for his combat within Resistance in favor of the Jews, the Pierre abbot according to him not having never pronounced matter anti-semites, neither during, nor after the war, and having proven its honesty by its action throughout its existence, as attests it the fact that it saved Jews during the war with the danger of his life.

The Pierre Abbot, itself, read out his very explicit political humanitarian action, denouncing very early the fact that the déportatations of Jews against whom it protested were perpetrated by French police officers in a time (be 1942) and a place (Grenoble in nonoccupied zone) which do not make it possible to call upon the pretext of the German constraint.

Some criticized the remarks of the Pierre Abbot on the idea of the promised land in the Old Testament. Indeed, he denounced the very violent catch of this ground by the Jews, such as it is described in the Bible: “That it of a promise remains when what was promised, one has just taken it while killing by true genocides of the people which lived there, peacefully, before they enter there” says it to Bernard Kouchner and he does not hesitate to deduce a true vocation with the exile from it from these people “I believe that - it is that which I have at the bottom of my heart - that your mission was - what, in fact, was achieved partially - the diaspora, dispersion through the whole world to go to carry knowledge which you were hitherto the only ones to carry, in spite of all the idolatries which surrounded you. ” (set of themes repudiated by the church at the time of the declaration " Nostre Aetate" exit of the Vatican II) and, finally, " a reading of the Bible very in conformity with the antijudaïsme of part of Catholicism before the Vatican II".

In fact, the position of the Pierre abbot on the Shoah will remain tinted of ambiguity: “they LICRA do not accept absolutely the dialog, contrary to Garaudy. They consider that the debate (on the genocide of the Jews) is closed. That to dare to reopen it is not possible. For example on the question of the gas chambers, it is probable that the totality of those projected by the Nazis were not built”. , matter to which the Pierre Abbot adds however: “But my friends of the LICRA say to me that to advance such assertions, it is to dispute Shoah. They are not serious. ””, publicly repudiated by the Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the Pierre Abbot is then summoned by his hierarchy to take a temporary media retirement and leaves some time in seminar to Italy; it declared there with the Corriere beyond Will be that the French press is " inspired by a lobby international Zionist ".

The Pierre Abbot and the red Brigades

The Pierre Abbot has " spontaneously témoigné" in the years 1980 in favor of the group of Italian refugees in Paris, directed by Vanni Mulinaris. It also carried out an hunger strike to protest against the arrest of Vanni Mulinaris (the husband of its niece) to Udine, imprisoned on the load of the assistance with Br. It went to speak in its favor in 1983 with the Italian president Sandro Pertini.

Meetings and international actions

The Pierre abbot met during his life the Pape S Pie {{XI}}, Pie {{XII}}, Jean {{XXIII}} and on several occasions Jean-Paul {{II}}; too much tired to travel it could not meet directly the new pope Benoît {{XVI}}, but it tied epistolary contacts.

Although having often criticized the positions of the Church and having held of the remarks sometimes interpreted like anticlericals, the Pierre Abbot placed never himself against the Church and held more than all with his pastoral mission but not proselyte; he respected his hierarchy, which he reproached only but openly to use of too much ostentation, and he preserved his freedom of tone and action like his frankness even on the disturbing famous subjects.

Refusing very gone up of responsibility within the Church to be able to devote itself to its missions closest to the people, it however knew to meet largest, and it met eminent members of the scientific community , Politique or international nun in particular:

1944 : the General de Gaulle with Algiers in French Algeria , after its arrest by the German armed and its escape via the Spain.
1945 : the father Teilhard of Chardin and the Philosopher Nicolas Berdiaëff, at his place, two men whom the Pierre abbot will vainly try to reconcile and make include itself/understand.
1948 : Albert Einstein with the University of Princeton to the the United States, to discuss with him of the “three atomic explosions” and to call with him its wishes with the foundation of an international movement for disarmament and peace in the world.
1956 : the president Tunisia N Habib Bourguiba to convince it to arrive at the independence of the Tunisia without violence.
1955 : the American president Dwight David Eisenhower in the Oval office of the White House, to which it gives a specimen of its book “ the ragmen of Emmaüs . ”
the King of the Morocco, Mohammed V, where it dispatches two missionaries to find solutions with the Bidonville S by supporting housing Rural.
1956 : many international meetings, with the Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, India, Swiss, Morocco. It meets the Indian Prime Minister Nehru, with Indira Gandhi, and the wise Indian Vinoba Vabe to support its agrarian walk nonviolent.
1958 - 1959: conferences in the Scandinavian countries and of South America. The Minister for the State education of the Peru calls upon him to develop the education populations Pauvre S. the father Camillo Tores in Colombia asks him for council on the position of the Église Colombia nne which disavows the action of the priests Ouvrier S. It meets the bishop Indian S in Ecuador to require of him to slow down the construction of places of sumptuous worships in disinherited districts.
1959 : with the Lebanon, it creates with Beirut the first multiconfessionnelle community of Emmaüs, founded by a Musulman Sunnite, a Christian Archevêque melkite and a writer Maronite.
1962 : it is received in the hermitage of the father Charles de Foucauld with Bless-Abbots in Algérie where it resides during several months.
1963 : one presses it at the time of his convalescence in Argentine, to federate the Communautés Emmaüs world in Emmaüs International, which will meet in 1969 with Bern in Suisse, and in 1972 with Montreal with the Quebec with the Canada.
1971 : it is called in India by Jayaprakam Narayan to represent with the Ligue of the human rights the France in the question of the Règlement of the Réfugié S. Indira Gandhi invites it in its turn to treat Bengali Réfugié S . The Pierre Abbot engages while melting of the Communautés Emmaüs with the Bangladesh.
May 26th, 1984 - June 3rd: Hunger strike in the Cathedral of Turin in protest against the detention conditions of the members of the Red Brigades (Br). The previous year, the Pierre abbot had spoken with the president Sandro Pertini in favor of Vanni Mulinaris, which directed the institute of Hyperion languages to Paris, and had been arrested and imprisoned, shown to be member of Br (it thereafter will be released and bleached this charge). The Pierre abbot would have also convinced François Mitterrand to grant asylum to the political Réfugiés Italian, while promising not to extradite those which would have broken with their past.
1985 : he gives his support for the Comique Coluche which, like front, makes him a call the September 26th on the waves to still come to famished assistance of the S. Là the public answer to this idea is unhoped-for, and Coluche with the support of the charity associations and of many personalities, the movement of the Resto du coeur launches (Coluche will offer 1 franc million to Emmaüs a few months before its in March 1986 death). The abbot who gives his support sees the proof there that its combat launched in 1954 can be begun again also effectively by others after him, and he is convinced again of the utility of the Médias to support his own actions in the communities of Emmaüs. Consequently, it will be done more visible and will call upon the personalities. The Fondation Abbé Pierre will profit from the Loi Coluche voted after its death, shortly after this launching. The death of his/her friend Coluche will mark it hard when the Pierre Abbot celebrates his funerals, to then take again its media combat with the support of many personalities of the spectacle and anonymities.
1988 : it meets the representatives of the Fonds international currency to find a solution with the Dette external of the countries of the Tiers-monde.
1990 : he travels to the the United States and the Brésil to accompany the exit by biographical film Hiver 54, the abbot Pierre of Denis Amar with Lambert Wilson in his role and Claudia Cardinale. Film which recalls part of its action and the Média tisation of its combat against the Pauvre t-piece with the Communautés of Emmaüs.
1991 : he addresses himself directly to the presidents Georges Bush and Saddam Hussein, at the time of the first war of the Gulf. He exhorts the French government to take initiatives to distribute the load of the Réfugié S in the world, by an organization laying out of more than means than current HCR of the the United Nations with goodwill Nation S. He meets the Dalai Lama at the time of the days inter nuns for the Paix.
1995 : with Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzégovine), under the bombardments of the city besieged for 3 years by the Serb forces, it has exhorted the nations of the world to intervene urgently to put an end to the massacres.
2000 : he was godfather of EICD 3A with Lyon.
2001 : the president Jacques Chirac gives the badges of to him large Officer of the Legion of Honor, before raising it with the dignity of Grand Cross, the highest French distinction , for his services rendered to the Nation.
2004 : he goes in Algérie for the inauguration of houses rebuilt by the Fondation Abbé Pierre, after the Earthquake having struck the country the previous year.

Accidents and health issues

He was regularly sick, in particular Poumon S when he was young. He left himself unscathed dangerous situations:

Fallen in a deep crack when it helped of people to flee during the war.
Survivor when the Avion in which it is makes a success of an emergency landing, without engine, in the Années 1950 in India.
And especially, shipwrecked man miraculé in 1963, with the Rio of Plata between the Argentinian and the Uruguay. Eighty people lose the life around him, which survives hung a wood end. Little time after, at the time of its voyage to Algiers, it exhibait with a kind of joy full with gratitude a multi-fonction pocket knife which had been determining for him in this adventure. It was full with compassion for the orphans lodged at the school Lavigerie (Casbah) and asked for them a help particular to the cardinal archbishop of Algiers, Monseigneur Duval.

All these accidents will take part to forge an image of to him miraculé.

Its death

The Pierre abbot dies Monday January 22nd 2007, early the morning (5. 25 local time), with the Hôpital of the Valley-of-Grace to Paris, of the continuations of a consecutive Infection of the Poumon right to bronchitis. He was 94 years old.,

He affirmed: “I passed my life to request God to die young person”. And he added: “You see, it is missed! ”.

The reactions in France are fast.

The day of his death, the president of the French Republic Jacques Chirac greeted the memory of the Pierre abbot and estimated that with its disappearance “it is whole France which is touched in the middle”.

“With the Movement Emmaüs and the Fondation Abbé Pierre, with all his militants and voluntary, the President of the Republic announces his great sorrow and the expression of all his solidarity”.

The whole of the French political community recognizes the work completed by the Pierre abbot, in particular Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister who greeted “the engagement and noble-hearted man”. In an official statement published by Matignon, the Prime Minister stresses that “the Pierre abbot was, all his life during, a force of indignation able to make move the hearts and the consciences”: “Defender of the right to housing, founder of the communities of Emmaüs, it devoted himself without slackening to help poorest to trace their way. The Pierre abbot showed us the way of individual and collective generosity. All the French will miss it”, concludes Dominique de Villepin.

Of all edges, the policies do not dry up praises for the Pierre abbot. Thus, for example, Ségolène Royal - candidate socialist with the presidential election Frenchwoman 2007, declares it with the microphone of the radio RTL that “the long cry of anger of the Pierre abbot against poverty should not die out”, while Nicolas Sarkozy, candidate UMP with the same election declared, him, in an official statement, that “with the disappearance of the Abbot Pierre, the heart of France east in Bern”.

Very many associations and French or international foundations which militated with the Pierre Abbot in common causes in favor of most stripped him the very same day pay a vibrating homage by official press releases (except the LICRA which did not grant to him any forgiveness in spite of its sincere repentance towards those that it would awkwardly have wounded).

The former president of the Republic Valery Giscard d'Estaing asked that “state funeral be celebrated” in the honor of the Pierre abbot. The presidency of the Republic decided the day of its death to know if a “national homage” or a “national mourning” (highest French funerary distinction) would be returned. In accordance with the wishes of Fondation Abbé Pierre and the family which seemed to be opposed to the second option, it is the first option which was selected (reserved all the same for exceptional personalities such before him, Jean-Paul II and the Commander Cousteau), in conformity with the will of the abbot who preferred than all the money serf rather with the collection with the profit of works of his Foundation, to which it gave throughout its life the whole of its rights as well as the personal gifts made to its name.

A Burning chapel was opened with all, Wednesday January 24th and Thursday 25, all the day, at the hospital of the Valley-of-Grace to Paris, where its simply surmounted coffin of its cane and its beret was exposed to the thanks of the public; a popular homage to the Pierre abbot was organized by the Mouvement Emmaüs Thursday January 25th to the General sports Palais of Paris-Bercy, of 19 to 11 p.m. In addition, of the visitors' books collect the popular homages to Paris, Metz and in several Emmaüs communities of the South of France; vis-a-vis the requests, other Emmaüs communities in France or in the world collect also the homages of the public.

Its funerals

Following the request of the family, the French flags were not put in Bern at the time of the national homage. Funerals proceeded Friday January 26th at 11 a.m., in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Various personalities of any edges united with the ceremony, placed behind Jacques Chirac, of many companions of Emmaüs and the family: Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Dominique de Villepin, of many Minister S French, of the artists… as well as an immense anonymous crowd. Rare fact in France, the funerary procession was applauded by the public, like in the cathedral.

During the ceremony the official representatives of various religions were present and gave to him symbolically of the gifts placed on its coffin, posed with very the ground. Notable exception: the absence of any authorized representative of the Jewish institutions.

Its coffin was then transferred towards its community from Esteville in Seine-Maritime, where the Pierre Abbot was buried in the most strict intimacy.

Several political personalities decide already for the transfer of its tomb to the the Pantheon, in spite of what the abbot in his deliver-will and his declarations wanted, conscious of its immense popularity and the responsibilities which this confidence imposed to him, confidence which it carried at the same time “as a weapon”, able to raise a very whole population to support it, “and a very heavy cross” to carry and which would not save anything to him.

Distinctions and homages

French Distinctions:

Grand Cross of the Legion of honor in 2004

Large officer in 1992
Commander in 1987 for his action for the housing of the underprivileged ones.
Officer in 19??
Knight in 19??

Military decoration
Military Cross 1939-1945 with palms.
Medal of Resistance.

Remarks and foreign disctinctions:

Gold medal Albert Schweitzer of the Goethe Foundation (with Swiss Basle, ) in 1975, given by Rene Lenoir, French Secretary of State.
1991, Italy: handing-over of the First Price of the Foundation Balzan for Humanity, the peace and the fraternity of the people , for his combat for the human rights, the democracy, peace, for the fight against the spiritual and physical sufferings, and for universal solidarity through the Emmaüs communities.
It is promoted Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1992 but it refuses to carry it until in 2001 to protest against the refusal of the French State to allot empty residences to SDF. The question is still of topicality today in the presidential campaign 2007 (from which the future law on the right to opposable housing should bear its name, as before him for Coluche whose it supported the cause before celebrating its funerals and to which will be allotted the law on the gifts to caritative works).
In January 2004, it requires not to appear more in the prize list of the press of the personalities the most liked of the French , after many successive years where it was promoted seventeen times at the head of the Top 50 between 1989 and 2003, in order to “leave this place to the young people. ”
July 14th 2004: raised with the dignity of Grand Cross of the Legion of honor by the president of the Republic, the highest French official distinction.
Several foreign decorations, of which those of Large officer of the National order of Quebec at the time of the official visit in Paris of the Prime Minister for the province of Quebec Jacques Parizeau in January 1995.
a school with its name was baptized with Nueil-the-Sapwoods (Two-Sevres) in 1993 and with Hédé in Ille-et-Vilaine the September 17th 2005.
January 26th 2007: national homage of the French Republic, with the official presence of the government to funerals.

Quotations

" " If you return to ask for these workers a license of construir impossible with their weak wages, I informed you, I convene the press, the radio, the cinema, I put my scarf of deputy, my stole of priest over, and then I take a pot of painting, I post their birth certificates, and I write " above; LICENSE DE VIVRE"
" When the law is thus made that, for the workers, with their legal wages, it is impossible to have a home for habriter humanly a hearth, a cradle, it is not to undertake a construction without license, it is the law which is illegal. It is not to the men to be crushed in front of the law. It is with the law to change to answer the rights of the homme".
“One should not make the war with the poor, but with poverty. ”
“a racist is a man who is mistaken in anger. ” wrongfully allotted to the Pierre Abbot, but said by Léopold Sédar Senghor
“On my tomb, in the place of flowers and crowns, bring to me the lists of thousands of families, of thousands of small children to which you will have been able to give the keys of a true housing. ”
“Say to them to write: it tried to like. ”, answered the Pierre abbot when one asked him what it would like that one registers on his tomb.
“One should not wait to be perfect to begin something of good. ”
“From time to time, to do what is not done, that done of the good. ”
“We need as much reasons to live as of what to live. ”
“the politicians know misery only by the statistics. One does not cry in front of the figures. ”
“One cannot, under pretext which it is impossible to do everything in one day, nothing to make whole. ”
“When one is indignant, it is appropriate to wonder whether one is worthy. ”
In connection with Nicolas Sarkozy, during the crisis of the suburbs and whereas it was in a disadvantaged district: “But does it worry about the safety of you, or the safety of the middle-class men of the rich avenues of Paris? ”
“And when the evening in your beautiful houses, you will kiss your small children with your clear conscience, in comparison with God, you have probably more blood on your hands of unconscious than will never have despaired about it. ”
With the question: “That would you like to intend God to say to you on your arrival? ”, he had answered: “Quickly will clean and take your place with the banquet to you! ”
“If you want to make a nasty trick with somebody, return celebrates it. ”
“Let us admit that I belong to the landscape. But that one does not await ego that I remain quiet. ”
“idleness makes insane. It is not enough to eat to live, but it is necessary to feel useful. ”
“a man has the right absolutely, if it does not have a roof and if it sees an empty housing, to occupy it. The squatters have a moral right. ”
“employment, it is like the bread, that divides”
“If you refuse the condom, you are a bastard. ”
“It is not with average police officers and weapons that one will prevent the poor from on our premises settling. ”
“I see flowering with dazzling the smallest flower on this heap of manure which is humanity. ”
“More I advance in age and more I am convinced that there are two things essential in the life not to be missed: to like and die. ”
“a smile is less expensive than electricity but gives as much light. ”
At the time of the sponsorship of the school 3A with Lyon in 2000: " While wanting to link the Business and the Development, never forget to speak about excluded from our time. The life, it is a little time given to freedoms to learn with aimer."

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