After several weeks of weirdly warm weather, it has suddenly gotten very cold in Paris, and it is even snowing in Toulouse, far to the south. The huddles of homeless people all over the city seem more pathetic 
in this bitter cold, and yesterday the Abbé Pierre died. He was an old man who in the icy winter of 1954 saw a woman frozen to death on the street, still clutching her eviction papers. The Abbé Pierre (the name was a pseudonym from his years in the anti-Nazi Resistance) made a radio appeal the next day, heard by 10 million people, that touched the hearts of the French and caused what was called the "insurrection of goodness" (insurrection de la bonté): donations poured in to help the homeless. In the years that followed, the Abbé worked steadily to help the poorest of the poor. He founded Emmaus, one of the most important French charities. He regularly came first in the list of most admired people in France, until at the end of his life he said that he wanted to be taken off the list: it was time for new people to take up the torch.
The new "insurrection" against homelessness, led recently by Les enfants de don Quichotte [the children of Don Quixote], has brought a different kind of demand-- as usual, for the government to help. There will soon be a law in France that everyone has the right to shelter, and this right will be enforceable against the various communities. The consequences are unforeseeable. But no doubt the law would have pleased the Abbé Pierre, and now it will be named for him.
No matter what you think about politics or the law, it is heart-wrenching to see a bundle of rags and a crutch huddled against the wind near a cash machine, one hand emerging from the bundle to hold out a bread-basket with a few centimes in it.
Today in the newspaper I saw a cartoon showing the Abbé entering the Pearly Gates. He says to Saint Peter, "What, you don't let in everyone?" and Saint Peter rolls his eyes and says, "Ça commence!" [It's starting!]
Nice tribute to Abbé Pierre.
Makes me feel good to have had donated all of our possessions to the Emmaus Charity when we left Paris...
Posted by: isabella | 23 January 2007 at 20:59
I had no idea that the Emmaus in Neuilly Plaisance was the original one. We go there all the time...
Posted by: Jennifer | 24 January 2007 at 09:53
I was wondering which one of us would write about the passing of Abbé Pierre. He is such a huge monument in France, bigger than Yannick Noah, and yet for a good two solid days none of the Anglophone bloggers had picked it up. Thanks for doing the honours.
Posted by: nardac | 24 January 2007 at 13:03
A great man, a great loss.
Posted by: Burt in beautiful North Wales | 26 January 2007 at 00:40
A nice person who is very generous... God bless him.
Posted by: Hassana Toukour | 28 January 2007 at 03:53
Nice tribute. I took a few pictures at the ceremony in Notre Dame:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hughes_leglise/sets/72157594500897748/
Posted by: Hugo | 01 February 2007 at 22:59
Sadly, the Church won't make him a saint. He had sexual intercourse and believed homosexual couples should be recognised! That just won't do.
Posted by: David | 26 April 2007 at 12:01
we will miss you abbé!
Posted by: victoria | 16 April 2008 at 21:34