Catholic World News News Feature

France Mourns Murdered Monks May 27, 1996

PARIS (CWN) - Bells in France's 40,000 churches tolled mournfully on Sunday, as the nation mourned the murder of seven French Trappist monks in Algeria by Moslem fundamentalist guerrillas. The last time all of France's churches have tolled their bells together was at the death of Pope John Paul I in 1978.

At Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger re-lit seven candles as a sign of the heavenly resurrection of the seven monks. "These men gave their lives as a source of life," he said. The candles were lit a month ago to keep alive hopes that the monks, abducted in March, were still alive. Cardinal Lustiger extinguished the candles Friday after the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) released a statement claiming they had killed the monks, aged 59 to 82.

The weekly newspaper Journal du Dimanche quoted a Trappist monk from the Algerian monastery as saying a French government envoy had secretly visited the monks 12 days ago, bringing them Holy Communion and medicine. The French government denies the claim.

Pope John Paul said on Sunday in his weekly address in St. Peter's Square that he was deeply saddened by the deaths of the monks. "Today's solemn celebration of Pentecost is saddened by the tragic news of the disappearance of seven Trappist monks from Notre Dame d'Atlas in Algeria, the latest in a long series of disgraceful episodes of violence in Algeria from which our Catholic brothers have not been spared," he said.

The Holy Father told the assembled pilgrims he was convinced the monks' deaths were not pointless but "will surely sow the seeds of reconciliation and peace among the Algerian people to whom they had become loyal."

Cardinal Lustiger asked Catholic Parisians to gather at the Human Rights Square, opposite the Eiffel Tower, on Tuesday to lay flowers for the monks in an act of mourning.