On 22nd January 2007 we were again called to lament as another "voice of conscience" was taken from our midst. The passing of Abbe Pierre hardly raised a paragraph in Australian media. Fair enough as we were in the midst of a major tennis game and Nicole managed to crash a car on a film set. News reports that appeared on SBS and Church Resources are no longer available online.
I did manage to find a reference in the SMH back in 2005 when the Abbe published a book including admissions of his sexual activities. New Idea must have been so miffed at missing that scoop!!
A Vatican rep eulogized: "I believe the Abbé Pierre, his writings and speeches as well his communities’ spirit should be studied and the lessons drawn from them should spread everywhere because the Gospels and the spiritual and cultural motivations that push us to fight “the only possible war, that against hunger and destitution” are always relevant."
There is another historical Australian connection here. You see this year 2022 as well as being the 15th anniversary of the passing of Abbe Pierre also marks the 50th anniversary of my joining the Capuchin Friars, Australia with whom whom I lived for six years. However not once in those days at the time of his death did I hear any of the local friars speak of their famous French confrere.
Abbé Pierre spoke not as a social worker soliciting charity, but as an angry prophet challenging the French to heed their moral duty. The measure of a civilised society, he insisted, was to be found in its treatment of the outcast: "la misère juge le monde."
May the spirit of Meddlesome Christians and Holy Irritants inform and inspire us as we go to the polls later in the year. May the Spirit who is the "enemy of apathy" teach us to sing a new song in this ancient land so that the downtrodden may be lifted up and the mighty ones put down. May our song of justice and mercy speak of the values of true religion in the "polis".
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