French President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to a priest murdered during the 2016 Normandy Islamist church attack. Servant of God Fr Jacques Hamel served the Catholic church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy when it was attacked on July 26, 2016, by two armed men who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Macron said in a July 26 statement marking 10 years since his death: “We do not forget Father Jacques Hamel. Ten years ago today, he was cowardly murdered by two Islamist terrorists, targeted because he embodied the refusal of hatred, fraternity, and hope. To his loved ones, to his parishioners and all the residents of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, to the Catholics of France, I extend the Nation’s fraternal and steadfast salute.
“His memory compels us. It compels us to relentlessly defend the freedom of conscience that the Republic guarantees and protects. In the face of Islamist terrorism, France remains united. Faithful to what defines her. Resolute in yielding nothing to those who seek to divide us.”
Born in Darnétal in 1930 to a railway worker and a weaver, Fr Hamel entered minor seminary aged 14. His studies were interrupted by an 18-month period of service in the French military in Algeria, and he was ordained in 1958. From 2015, Fr Hamel worked as part of an interfaith committee.
Following his murder, there were numerous calls to declare Fr Hamel a saint, with the hashtag “santosubito” (“saint now”) trending on Twitter, now X.
Pope Francis offered Mass for the repose of the soul of Fr Hamel shortly after his death, in which he compared his murder at the altar to Christ’s sacrifice.
The Pope said in 2016: “Fr Jacques Hamel had his throat cut on the Cross, precisely while he was celebrating the sacrifice of the Cross of Christ. This good, meek man of brotherhood, who was always trying to make peace, was assassinated as if he were a criminal. This is the satanic thread of persecution.
“But there is one thing, in this man who accepted his martyrdom there, with the martyrdom of Christ, at the altar, there is one thing that causes me to reflect a great deal: in the midst of the difficult moment that he experienced, in the midst also of this tragedy that he saw approaching, this gentle man, this good man, this man who strove for brotherhood, did not lose his clarity of thought and clearly said the name of the murderer, he said it very clearly: ‘Be gone, Satan!’.
“He gave his life for us, he gave his life so as not to deny Jesus. He gave his life in the same sacrifice of Jesus on the altar, and from there he accused the author of persecution: “Be gone, Satan!”.
The Pope called his death an example of courage and martyrdom, and said that he had emptied “himself in order to help others”.
The year after his murder he was declared a Servant of God, which precedes venerable, blessed, and saint in the canonisation process. On April 13, 2017, Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen announced the opening of Fr Hamel’s beatification cause, following Pope Francis waiving the required five-year waiting period between death and the opening of a cause for canonisation. Such a dispensation is rare, though had previously been granted to Pope St John Paul II and Mother Teresa.
