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THE ELDERLY FRENCH priest who was killed by two men who claimed to be acting on behalf of the so-called Islamic State has been described as a “kind” and “shy” man by those who knew him.
Fr Jacques Hamel (86) was nominally retired for the last ten years but his dedication meant that he continued to serve his parish in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. He was killed today while saying mass.
Hamel was born in 1930 in Darnetal, a nearby town, and has been praised today by those who attended his masses.
Philippe Benoist, a deacon at Sotteville-lès-Rouen told Liberation that Fr Hamel was a man,
Who always had a smile. He always found a way to chat. It was a very open character. He was a gentleman, someone to listen, who knew what to say to do good.
A parishioner also told the newspaper that he was “a shy man”.
There was not much talk about him. He was an educated man who could laugh from time to time but always in small groups.
The killing of Fr Hamel makes him the 236th person to die in jihadist attacks in France since the beginning of last year.
This is the first such attack on a church on French soil since the emergence of Islamic State.
Here is what we know so far about the latest bloodshed:
What happened?
Two men arrived at the 17th century Eglise Saint-Etienne church during morning mass, storming the building and taking five hostages inside.
During the siege they killed Fr Hamel in his 80s by slitting his throat and seriously injured another captive.
Sister Danielle, a nun who was in the church at the time, said the slain priest was wearing his white cloaks and was at the foot of the altar when “they forced him to get on his knees and not move”.
He tried to struggle, He knew what was happening.
She said the men were speaking Arabic and shouting and had “recorded” the attack. She managed to run away and alert the police.
Some 65% France’s population identify as Catholics, according to the Ifop polling centre.
The country’s second largest religion, Islam, has just five million followers.
Taken down by police
As the two attackers made to leave the church they were confronted by French police and were shot dead.
Three of the hostages were freed unharmed.
Who were the attackers?
The Islamic State group has said that the two assailants were its “soldiers,” an IS-linked news agency reported.
“The perpetrators of the Normandy church attack are soldiers of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls to target countries of the Crusader coalition,” the Amaq news agency said.
One of the two attackers had been charged with terror links and held before being freed on bail, a source close to the investigation said.
The assailant, who was known to France’s anti-terrorism police, tried twice to go to Syria in 2015.
After his release, he had to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet that allows police to locate him at all times.
He had already threatened to attack a church, according to witness testimony collected in his neighbourhood.
“We knew he wanted to go to Syria,” a 60-year-old neighbour of the assailant’s family, who added that he “never saw him go to the mosque” that he attended.
Little is known at this stage about the other attacker.
With reporting by © – AFP 2016
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My band Cruachan made it to the last ten this year, so close to making the final six for the televised final. A totally different song than normal – celtic folk mixed with metal, thin lizzy meets horslips. Anyway, we’ll release our submission ‘The Blacksmith’ as a standalone single on the same day as Irelands semi final so plz check that out and see what you think
@Keith Fay: if ye make it it’ll be the first good act since Lordi.
@Kieran Fitzgerald: Cheers Kieran, we’ll most likely try again for next year. Ireland needs to stop sending pop!
@Keith Fay: it’d be fine if it was good pop but the best we can do some some lad who can do the Louis Walsh dance move. A.K.A Standing up off a stool on a key change.
And who selects the songs presented on the late late show? Or is it who you know?……
@Rebecca Owens: this is what I was told – “We had a judging panel of over 30 Radio, TV and Entertainment professionals as well as Eurovision fans shortlisting the songs”
@Keith Fay: lol.. Rubbish.. Johnny Rotten!! (English Man). All candidates are politically / agenda picked.
I watch the Eurovision but often it feels like the judges don’t. It feels like they are still locked in the past with no idea of what actually succeeds in the Eurovision nowadays. I mean the audience of Eurovision are hardly diehard fans of the Late Late show way of selecting singers. Johnny Rotten will probably go in purely for the novelty factor.
Yes but I can’t watch Turbity or Marty Whelan, so that rules out Eurosong tonight or Eurovision on RTE.
I watch all kinds of everything
nul points – nein danke
50% polled have no interest, yet the viewing figures every year are huge.
Funny that.
@Eamonn Duggan: Viewing figures are rigged.
@Roger Bond: or more simply, the Journal commenters are not representative of the general population.
@Eamonn Duggan: A quick Google search tells me that, at 314,000 viewers, it wasn’t even in the top 50….
Listened to the songs, i cannot see any going through never mind winning. The competition should be more open to the public. Like it was when it started. A knock out competition
I do watch it, it’s actually quite good.
The bloc vote argument and the naff song argument come from people who haven’t watched the contest in years.
The quality has improved songwise, the winners are not all eastern bloc, recent winners: Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Sweden (twice), Austria, Denmark.
I do think RTÉ needs to make more of an effort when you see what the rest of Europe brings each year. We won’t be holding that record for much longer and when that happens, which it will, we won’t be able to tug at the Johnny Logan nostalgia strings any longer. Change if approach is needed now.
Look at United Kingdom, coming second last year, would have won only for Ukraine, however end up hosting in Liverpool this year, so they may as well have won the thing last year.
Every mention of John Lydon and P. I. L. has been removed!!! Why??
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Cause the system don’t like it.
@Keth Warsaw: It’s a great rock ‘n roll swindle if you ask me.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: And tonight….never mind the bolox.
@Keth Warsaw: bollix
Yes, taking a shot everytime Marty makes a patronising remark about one of the other countries.
The Eurovision became a complete joke show when those Eastern European countries came onboard.
@Roger Bond: So you’d kick out all the countries east of Berlin?
junket for some who look forward to the trip yearly and the taxpayers being fleeced to pay for such trips , RTE. And their Mafia and political connections wast of taxoayers money as some sections of society go hungry and have to live in the cold homes if they have one to live in .
Has become too big. Bring back four singers and frocks, and a real connection. Don’t need to watch pornstars throwing out noise.
…Never gonna happen.
Not since My Lovely Horse.
Let JR represent Ireland. We have been too anodyne fit too long.
Eurovision peaked in 2006.
@Kieran Fitzgerald: 1970 s
I did and it was cringeworthy
Amateur hour
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