the secrets were covered up until the end of the Abbott's life in France where he left behind a legacy as a friend to the poor yet archived correspondence published in a radio France investigation show that the church knew that abip Pier was accused of sexual abuse as far back as the 1950s in particular during a number of month-long tours in the US and Canada in 1955 a student who'd helped organize abip stay in the United States wrote I saw so many things during the trip ways in which the father acted as an individual the Abbot later wrote him a threatening letter you promised to stop meddling no that's not one recurrence will go unanswered and if necessary my answers will be brutal surgical four years later in Quebec the police was called following complaints against the priest but the affair was hushed up on his return to France abip defended himself in a letter to a cardinal at the end of 1957 the church sent the priest to a hospital in Switz land officially for a hernia but people close to him say it was over concerns of a sex scandal it would take decades until the first allegations came to light in July shocking France further testimonies gathered by the charities founded by abier detail more allegations including repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person and sexual contact with a child AB Pierre was a priest who could improve his image because he was the priest of the voiceless the priest of the home and so we wonder if that isn't also why the church took such precautions with him in any case it's clear that at the time these matters were not a subject of discussion R France also interviewed a documentary maker who witnessed a crude conversation between the Abbott and the young woman after a few seconds of conversation AB Pierre asked the woman if she ever thought of him the young woman replied a little embarrassed yes occasionally she would think of him he then responded do you touch yourself when you think of me 17 years after his death the latest claims have prompted the abier foundation to announce it would change its name a memorial to the priest will also be permanently closed reiterating their total support for the victims his Charities have also set up an independent committee to explain the failings that allowed abier to act as he did for more than 50 years