On Saturday, Pope Francis comforted the sister of an elderly French priest who was murdered by ISIS militants in a church in Normandy as the pontiff paid tribute with a special prayer service to the courage of 20th- and 21st- century Christian martyrs.
Francis gripped the hands of Roselyne Hamel, whose brother, Fr Jacques Hamel, 85, died when his throat was slit as he celebrated Mass on July 26, 2016.
He quietly spoke with her during the evening service in St Bartholomew Basilica on Tiberina Island in Rome. He had just heard her tell fellow faithful in the church that her brother was killed by "two youths radicalised by a discourse of hate."
