The French church is to question the Vatican over revelations published Thursday that it knew about sexual abuse allegations against French charity icon Abbé Pierre as early as the 1950s.
The Catholic priest was widely praised for his work with the poor and homeless when he died in 2007 aged 94.
But since September last year, 33 people have alleged he committed sexual abuse against them between 1950 and 2000. Some were children at the time of the alleged acts.
The news rocked both the public and French church, which agreed to open its archives that same month.
But in February, prosecutors dropped the criminal investigation because the statute of limitations had expired in all cases.
In a book published Thursday, Abbé Pierre, the Making of a Saint, journalists Marie-France Etchegoin and Laetitia Cherel allege the Vatican knew about some of the accusations for decades.
"As early as autumn 1955, not only did top French clergy know about the dark side and danger in Abbé Pierre, but so did the Holy See," they wrote.
They report that the Vatican requested the bishop of Versailles launch "a judicial procedure", but it didn't happen.
The journalists had gained access to Vatican archives, declassified in 2020, showing that a priest had written to the Holy See in October 1955 to say Abbé Pierre had done "immoral things" while visiting the United States.
"The elements uncovered are serious and deserve to be investigated," the Conference of French Bishops (CEF) said Thursday, announcing plans to work with the Vatican to understand "what happened and what the behavior of the French bishops in positions of responsibility was at the time".
French charity turns its back on founding father accused of sexual abuse
'Problematic' behaviour
The archives also included the minutes of a 1957 meeting about Abbé Pierre, born Henri Groues in 1912.
The 10-page document noted that two US and Canadian cardinals had alerted the Vatican in 1955, and detailed allegations against him from 1955 to 1957, the journalists said.
The Vatican asked its ambassador to France at the time to keep an eye on Abbé Pierre, also suspecting him of having ties to Communism, it showed.
Archives of the French Catholic church, consulted after the scandal first broke last September, show French religious leaders remained quiet about what they termed Abbé Pierre's "problematic" behaviour.
French church unlocks archives early on priest accused of sexual abuse
Pope Francis said in September that the Vatican had known about the accusations against the French charity figure at least since his death in 2007.
The Conference of Bishops of France at the time asked the Vatican to examine its archives to see what was known before then, but there has been no follow-up so far.
The 1939-1958 Vatican archives that the journalists consulted were declassified in 2020 to allow historians to examine the Holy See's attitude to Nazi Germany, the book's authors said.
It contained a blue file titled Abbé Pierre, which one of them said the Vatican possibly did not realise was included.
Véronique Margron, president of the Conference of Religious Men and Women of France, said she was shocked by the book's revelations.
"The church must be held accountable," she told FranceInfo. "Someone obviously owes these children and women answers. [They] should never have become victims."
She called on all archives on Abbé Pierre to be opened to researchers, describing any resistance as "immoral".
(with AFP)
