Pope Francis met privately at the Vatican with French President Francois Hollande, who said he felt it necessary to thank the Pope in person for his words after the slaying of a French priest and other terrorist attacks in France.
The president arrived in Rome on Wednesday and went directly to the French national church, St Louis, to visit a chapel set up as a place of prayer for the victims of terrorism.
The chapel honours the memory of the 130 people who died during the November attacks in Paris, the 84 who died in Nice in July and Fr Jacques Hamel, who was brutally murdered as he celebrated Mass on July 26.
