(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is horrified and shocked by an attack in a church in Rouen, in northern France, where a priest was slain and another hostage was seriously wounded.
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“The pope has been informed and participates in the pain and horror due to this absurd violence, with condemnation of the most radical form of hate and prayer for the people hit (by it)”, Lombardi said. “May the Lord inspire everyone to thoughts of reconciliation and fraternity in this new test”, read the telegram, signed by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
Archbishop Lebrun, who is now in Krakow, Poland for World Youth Day, responded to the news of the killing, calling on believers and non-believers to “cry out to God with all men of good will”. With the young people at WYD, we pray as we prayed at the tomb of Father Popiulusko in Warsaw, assassinated during the communist regime.
According to various sources, two men armed with knives broke into the church, and held 84-year-old Fr Jacques Hamel and several others – including two nuns – hostage for 40 minutes. “I ask them not to give in to violence”, but instead “become apostles of the civilization of love”.
Soon after the news of the attack broke, a Vatican spokesman defined it as a “terrible news, which unfortunately adds to a series of [recent] violent acts” creating “immense pain and worry”.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has expressed his horror at the “barbaric attack”.
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On Nov. 13, 2015, almost 130 people were killed in a series of attacks throughout Paris. “We are following the situation and await further information to understand what has happened”.
