Advocate for the downtrodden and oppressed, Abbe Pierre, died in Paris at
the age of 94 this week. He had worked with the French Resistance, oppressed for reforms to harsh French eviction laws and established the network of Emmaus hostels across Europe for the homeless. Using his popularity and moral capital in France as a priest, he lobbied the Catholic Church to allow clergy to marry and for the ordination of women. (Nuns are not ordained, though married Deacons are.)

Jacques Chirac commented :Abbe Pierre represented the spirit of rebellion against misery, suffering, injustice and the strength of solidarity.

When I was trying to save money on French lodgings, the street people offered me their Gauloises. And they had also voted down the previous Paris mayor's proposal to divert the turnstile flower budget to soup kitchens. French socialism requires at least a minimum level of landscaping.