Scottish Catholic Observer

By Amanda Connelly

FR JACQUES Hamel, 84, was killed in church, as he celebrated Mass, by two men affiliated to the Islamic State terrorist group near Rouen, in the north of France, on Tuesday.

The armed attackers took the priest, two nuns and several parishioners hostage after entering the Saint Etienne-du-Rouvray church.

Another nun, Sr Danielle, escaped the church, and later described seeing the attackers film themselves cutting the priests throat and give a sermon in Arabic around the altar.

“They forced (Fr Hamel) to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that’s when the tragedy happened. It’s a horror.” Sister Danielle said on French television.

The two attackers were killed by police as they rushed from the building. One of the assailants was identified as Adel Kermiche, a local 19-year-old, who had been arrested trying to travel to Syria this year and faced preliminary terrorism charges.

One of the other hostages was seriously injured, and their condition remains critical.

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun, of Rouen, immediately returned home from Krakow, where he had been preparing for World Youth Day, saying: ‘I cry out to God with all men of goodwill. I would invite non-believers to join in the cry’.

“The Catholic Church cannot take weapons other than those of prayer and brotherhood among men,’ he went on. “I leave here hundreds of young people who are the future of humanity, the true ones. I ask them not to give in to the violence and become apostles of the civilisation of love.”

Fr Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesperson, said that Pope Francis was horrified at this act of ‘absurd violence’.

He added: “We are particularly shocked that this horrible violence occurred in a church, a sacred place where love of God is proclaimed.”

Fr Hamel had been retired for nearly a decade. He still officiated regularly as auxiliary at the church in St Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, and in neighbouring Elbeuf, stepping in when the parish’s regular priest, Fr Auguste Moanda-Phuati, was busy.

Born in the département of Seine-Maritime in 1930 and ordained in 1958, Hamel spent most of his working life in north-west France, including more than 30 years at St-Etienne.

After officially retiring at 75, he had asked to remain in the parish and continue to help when necessary, the archdiocese of Rouen said.

“To attack a church, to kill a priest, is to profane the republic,” French President Francois Hollande told the nation after speaking with Pope Francis.

Mr Hollande, visiting the scene of Tuesday’s slaying, denounced what he called ‘a vile terrorist attack’ and one more sign that France is at war with ISIS.

The terrorist group used social media to claim responsibility for the attack.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said he was ‘truly appalled at the series of attacks which have been perpetrated on France and her people over recent weeks’.

He added: “This latest incident represents a new and shocking development—namely the attack on people engaged in the worship of God in a sacred place.

We pray for the repose of the soul of the priest killed and for the recovery of those injured.

“We pray for the people of France, Germany and other places so cruelly targeted by men of evil intent in recent weeks. May God have mercy on us all.”

The murder came after the terrorist attacks on Bastille Day in Nice, where more than 80 people where killed when an Islamic State supporter drove a truck into crowds watching a firework display on the promenade.

—This story ran in full in the July 29 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.