French church where priest slain to reopen | Inquirer News

French church where priest slain to reopen

/ 11:27 AM October 02, 2016

(FILES) This file photo taken on July 28, 2016 shows people gathering on July 28, 2016 near floral in front of the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, northern France, where French priest Jacques Hamel was killed on July 26 in the church during a hostage-taking claimed by Islamic State group. / AFP PHOTO / CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

This file photo taken on July 28, 2016, shows people gathering on July 28, 2016, in front of the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, northern France, where French priest Jacques Hamel was killed on July 26 during a hostage-taking claimed by ISIS. AFP FILE

SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France — Two months after its priest was murdered by teenage jihadists, parishioners of a Catholic church in northern France will gather Sunday for a solemn re-opening ceremony to seek solace and solidarity.

The Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church, a focal point of a small town of some 27,000 near the city of Rouen, will hold a special penitential mass to mark the occasion and pay tribute to Father Jacques Hamel.

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The 85-year-old priest had his throat slit at the foot of the altar on July 26 in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

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“He was a good priest. I always went to see him and he never refused to be of service,” said 81-year-old Mafalda Pace, who lives just next door to the 16th-century church.

Pace said Saturday she would be among those following the penitential rite of cleansing and subsequent Mass presided over by Archbishop of Rouen Dominique Lebrun.

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“The rite consists of ‘cleansing’ the church through the sprinkling of holy water,” said the archbishop, who also celebrated an August 2 funeral Mass for the slain priest at Rouen Cathedral which was attended by President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

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In a show of inter-faith solidarity, Muslims and Jews were among the mourners on that occasion.

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The killing came less than two weeks after the Bastille Day attack that claimed 86 lives when a Tunisian extremist rammed a truck into crowds on a popular promenade in the southern city of Nice.

The murder of Hamel and the Nice massacre some seven months after the November Paris attacks were the latest in a series of jihadist attacks to rock France over the past year and a half.

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Sunday’s rite is designed to wipe away the profaning of the church at the hands of jihadists Adel Kermiche, a local man, and Abdel-Malik Petitjean, both of whom were shot dead by police following a siege.

Local clergy will join the archbishop for Sunday’s services, which will follow a mid-afternoon procession to the church with members of the local Muslim community pledging to join.

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“It will be a day of brotherhood … I hope that all local people will be there, believers or not,” Mohamed Karabila, representing the local mosque, told AFP. CBB/rga

TAGS: France, ISIS, Islam, Islamists, Jihad, jihadists, News

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