French bishops recall slaying of Father Hamel
July 25, 2017
The president of the French bishops’ conference has issued a statement on the anniversary of the killing of Father Jacques Hamel.
Two Muslim men who had pledged allegiance to ISIS slit the 85-year-old priest’s throat on July 26, 2016, while he was celebrating Mass in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. In April, the Archdiocese of Rouen inaugurated his beatification cause after Pope Francis waived the customary five-year waiting period.
Recalling the “unthinkable events that leave speechless,” Archbishop Georges Pontier, the president of the bishops’ conference, said that Father Hamel was “a symbol of a life lived with each other, for each other, a life of daily fidelity, a life rooted in the love” of Christ.
The prelate appealed for prayers for France on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, that the Lord may “raise up many men and women who live in their ordinary lives for others and with others.”
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Further information:
- Mgr Georges Pontier : « Il y a un an, le Père Jacques Hamel était assassiné » (CEF)
- French church attacked during Mass, priest murdered (CWN, 7/26/16)
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