L’abbé Pierre / Henri Grouès

1912 – 2007 • France

Resistance • Christian socialism • Human rights

Using his wartime pseudonym, L’abbé Pierre, the Catholic priest Henri Grouès helped establish the resistance movement in the Vercors during the Second World War. In 1949, while he was a deputy (from 1945 to 1951 and part of a Christian socialist parliamentary grouping) he established the Emmaüs international charity.

Grouès campaigned for the right of conscientious objectors to refuse to fight in Algeria and from 1954 became known as a tireless campaigner against poverty and homelessness.

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