A Catholic priest in France (born Henri Antoine Groues), Fr. Pierre gave up a life of luxury to go into the priesthood. During World War II, he served as a member of the French resistance against the Germans. (He kept his code name, Abbe Pierre, after the war.) His specialty was forging papers to get people out of the country. After the war, he was appalled by the plight of the poor and homeless, and helping them became his mission.
In 1954, during a cold snap where nearly 100 people died, the French government rejected funds for emergency housing. So Pierre talked his way onto the radio to alert his countrymen of the problem. Then he went to a Luxembourg station to tell them, “Look, French radio has just run this. If you don’t want to be scooped, give me the microphone right away!” — and repeated the plea. The result was an outpouring of charity so huge that army trucks had to be called in to haul it all. The government reversed itself, agreeing to build homeless shelters. The police let the homeless spend the night in their station houses. And the tiny charity that Fr. Pierre created, the Emmaus Society, grew into a worldwide social service organization. Abbe Pierre died January 22. He was 94.