Priest toiled for homeless, supported gays

[Ian David]

Priest toiled for homeless, supported gays
published Friday, January 26, 2007

France paid national tribute Friday to one of its most beloved public figures, a feisty priest who had battled on behalf of the homeless, poor and disenfranchised for more than half a century.

Abbe Pierre, who founded the Emmaus Community for the poor, now established in 39 countries, has been honored, and mourned, at several gatherings since his death Monday at age 94.

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Abbe Pierre, or Abbot Pierre, the code name he used in the French Resistance in World War II, had served as a spokesman for the homeless since the 1950s, when he persuaded parliament to pass a law forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter months.

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Born Henry Groues on August 5, 1912, one of eight children in a well-heeled Lyon family, he exchanged comfort for a monk's cell for six years before joining the priesthood in 1938. He entered the Resistance in World War II, taking the name Abbe Pierre in 1942 as a cover for his work manufacturing fake identity papers and helping Jews cross the border to Switzerland.

Always frank, Abbe Pierre became even more so in old age. In a 2005 book, he said he favored allowing priests to marry. In Mon Dieu...Pourquoi? (My God...Why?), he wrote that he supported unions of gay couples and the ordination of women. In an interview with AP in 1994, he acknowledged one regret: "Everything I was not able to do." (Cecile Roux, AP)

More:
http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2007/01/26/3

[xchrom]

1. abbe pierre was a hero and an example to all of us.

his message to the homeless was to come in and find rest -- WE LOVE YOU!

what a concept.

he understood that the church can withstand change will only benefit from inclusiveness.

he was a man of christ.

a true saint.

http://www.nysun.com/article/47151
On a tour of South America in 1959, Abbé Pierre told an Ecuadorian bishop to scrap plans for an elaborate cathedral and give the money to the poor. And he urged Pope John Paul II to retire at age 75, which, given the pontiff's popularity, must have taken guts. The pope evidently liked Abbé Pierre and had four audiences with him, which was surprising, as Abbé Pierre called for the right of priests to marry and for the church to ordain women. He even admitted that he had broken his vow of chastity "on rare occasions" when he was a young priest.

Abbé Pierre was the son of a wealthy silk manufacturer in Lyon. Inspired while still a teenager by St. Francis of Assisi, he renounced his inheritance, distributed his belongings to the poor, and at 18 entered a Capuchin seminary. He was ordained as a priest by the inspirational theologian Fr. Henri de Lubac, who, Abbé Pierre said, advised him to "make just one prayer to the Holy Spirit: ask it to grant you the anticlericalism of the saints."

this is the organization that abbe pierre founded
http://www.emmaus.org.uk/

[MadBiologist]

2. Damn

I find it hard to find anything good with any church or religion. But I find no fault with this man, and I get the feeling my local parish priest follows in his excellent example...(yes, I can hate religion and still be on hugging terms with one of the most progressive catholic priests I have ever known... this guy has risked excommunication to do what is right)