Priest murdered by ISIS to be fast-tracked to sainthood

Oct 3rd, 2016 (Updated Jul 28th, 2018)

Fr Jacques Hamel

The Pope said yesterday that he is speeding up the process to make a Saint of the French priest murdered in July by ISIS terrorists.

Father Jacques Hamel, 85, was slaughtered by two 19-year-old extremists on July 26, as he quietly presided over a morning Mass at the parish church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

Returning to Rome from Azerbaijan yesterday, Pope Francis revealed that he had asked the Vatican's prefect for the Congregation for Saints' Causes to set aside the usual five-year wait required between the death of a candidate for sainthood and the opening of the canonisation process.

This, the Pope explained, was to allow the swift collection of testimonies from eyewitnesses to Father Hamel's murder.

An elderly man present during the killing was gravely wounded.

Yesterday, the church at Rouvray was re-opened by the Archbishop of Rouen after a procession that culminated in a penitential service and finally Mass.

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