Paris/Vatican: An 84-year-old priest was killed and four other people taken hostage by two armed men who stormed a church during a morning Mass in a suburb of Rouen in northern France.
The two attackers entered the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on Tuesday morning, taking the elderly priest and four other people hostage before being shot dead by French police.
The attackers who styled themselves as Islamic State soldiers(IS), slit Fr Jacques Hamel’s throat.
Pope Francis is horrified and shocked by an attack in a church in Rouen, in northern France.
A statement released by Fr Federico Lombardi, Director of the Holy See Press Office said: “we are particularly shocked because this horrible violence took place in a Church, in which God’s love is announced, with the barbarous killing of a priest and the involvement of the faithful”.
Fr Lombardi also said the Pope shares the pain and the horror caused by this absurd violence and expresses firm condemnation of every form of hatred and prays for the victims.
