JACQUES HAMEL, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 26 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 26th of July

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SERVANT OF GOD JACQUES HAMEL, PRIEST AND MARTYR

"Jacques Hamel (30 November 1930 - 26 July 2016) was a French Catholic priest who served in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. On July 26, 2016, Hamel was murdered during the 2016 Normandy church attack by two Muslim men pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant while he celebrated Mass in his church." (From Wikipedia)

Father Hamel, 85, still officiated regularly as auxiliary at the church in St Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, Normandy, France, and in neighbouring Elbeuf, local media reported, stepping in when the parish’s regular priest, Father Auguste Moanda-Phuati, was busy.

Father Hamel  was killed by two men armed with knives during Weekday Mass. They who took five people, Fr Hamel, two nuns and two other worshippers, hostage in the church. The two men were later shot by police. Three hostages were freed unharmed but one was in a critical condition.

Born in the same département of Seine-Maritime in 1930 and ordained in 1958, Hamel spent most of his working life in north-west France, including more than 30 years at St-Étienne. He celebrated 50 years in the clergy in 2008.

DEDICATED AND ALWAYS AVAILABLE

After officially retiring at 75, he had asked to remain in the parish and continue to help when necessary, the archdiocese of Rouen said. “This man was a good man,” said the president of the regional council, Hervé Morin.

Parishioners said they were devastated by the murder. “My family have been here for 35 years and we have always known him,” the manager of a beauty parlour down the road from the church told L’Express magazine.

VERY DISCREET

Hamel was “very discreet”, said the woman, who came to know him when she took catechism classes with him as a young girl. “He did not like to put himself forward. He was someone who was very much appreciated in the local community.”

Another neighbour told the magazine: “This was a man who did his job to the very end. He was old, but always available for everyone. He was a good priest."

BARBARIC MURDER

Father Moanda-Phuati told Libération of his shock. “I could not possibly imagine anything like this happening,” said the priest. “We have never received any threats.” The Vatican spoke of a “barbaric killing” and “horrific violence... in a church, a sacred place where the love of God is declared”.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS NO OTHER ARMS THAN PRAYER AND FRATERNITY AMONG MEN

Dominique Lebrun, the archbishop of Rouen, said in a statement from Krakow, where he was attending an international gathering of young Catholics, that he would be returning to France on Tuesday evening and would visit the parish.

“The Catholic church has no other arms than prayer and fraternity among men,” the bishop said. “I will leave behind here hundreds of young people who are the future of humanity, of true humanity. I ask them not to give up in the face of such violence and to become apostles for a civilisation of love.”

From The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/26/father-jacques-hamel-normandy-france-a-good-priest-who-did-his-job-to-the-very-end