MANCHESTER (CNS): A “death knell” was rung from every church in France at 3.00pm on October 29 on the orders of the country’s bishops in an act of mourning for the three people who were killed in Notre Dame Basilica in Nice, while preparing for morning Mass.
Pope Francis sent a tweet expressing closeness to the people of Nice. “I pray for the victims, for their families and for the beloved French people, that they may respond to evil with good,” it said.
Pietro Cardinal Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, sent a similar message on the pope’s behalf in a telegramme to Bishop André Marceau of Nice. “Entrusting France to the protection of Our Lady,” Pope Francis “wholeheartedly gives his apostolic blessing to all those affected by this tragedy,” the telegramme said.
The French Council of Muslim Worship condemned the killings and asked Muslims to express their “mourning and solidarity with the victims and their relatives” by cancelling all celebrations of the birthday of Muhammad, which this year was marked by Sunni Muslims on October 29.
According to French media, the victims included a 70-year-old woman whose body was found by police “almost beheaded” beside a holy water font.
According to French media, the victims included a 70-year-old woman whose body was found by police “almost beheaded” beside a holy water font.
A 45-year-old sacristan, Vincent Loques, a father of two daughters, was found dead in the basilica.
A second woman, described as African in origin and in her 30s, fled the church after she was stabbed, but died in the nearby cafe where she had sought refuge.
Police shot and wounded a man in his 20s who was suspected of the attack, and he was arrested and taken to hospital for treatment.
The suspect was later identified as 21-year-old Brahim Aouissaoui, a Tunisian who entered France via Lampedusa, the Italian island between Malta and Tunisia, at the end of September. He arrived in France after he was quarantined by Italian authorities and ordered to leave all Italian territory.
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said the attacker “kept shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is great) even after being medicated.” The mayor said “the meaning of his gesture is not in doubt.”
He said, “Enough is enough, It’s time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory.”
French police have confirmed they are treating the killings as a terrorist incident.
It comes amid mounting anger from Muslims at the defense of satirical cartoons of the prophet Muhammad the president, Emmanuel Macron.
Two hours after the attack, police shot dead a man who was brandishing a handgun and shouting “Allahu akbar” in the southern city of Avignon. The same day, a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was stabbed by a 40-year-old attacker, who was then apprehended.
He said, “God has revealed himself to be a God of love. Murder in his name is the real one, the only blasphemy, an insult to who he is.”
The evening of October 29, the prime minister, Jean Castex was due to meet Bishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the bishops’ conference, and Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris, to discuss security measures needed to guarantee the safety of Catholics.
In a statement posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Paris, Archbishop Aupetit said he was “stunned by this murderous madness in the name of God.”
He said, “God has revealed himself to be a God of love. Murder in his name is the real one, the only blasphemy, an insult to who he is.”
The archbishop said, “From the beginning, Christians have been persecuted and even today it is they who, although they preach and live the love of God and of neighbour together, pay the heaviest price in hatred and barbarism.”
The French bishops said in a statement that they had been plunged into “immense sadness.”
The statement said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, the injured, their families and loved ones. It was because they were in the basilica that these people were attacked, murdered. They represented a symbol to be destroyed.”
The bishops said the attack reminded them of “the martyrdom” of Father Jacques Hamel, a priest hacked to death in his Normandy church by Islamic militants in 2016 (Sunday Examiner, 7 August 2016).
“Through these horrific acts, our entire country is affected,” they said in the statement. “This terrorism aims to instill anxiety throughout our society. It is urgent that this gangrene be stopped, as it is urgent that we find the indispensable fraternity which will hold us all upright in the face of these threats.
“Despite the pain gripping them, Catholics refuse to give in to fear and, with the whole nation, want to face this treacherous and blind threat,” the bishops added.
Bishop Marceau responded to the attack by ordering the instant closure of all of the churches in the city and declaring them to be under police protection.
“All my prayers go out to the victims, their loved ones, the law enforcement agencies on the front lines of this tragedy, priests and faithful wounded in their faith and hope,” Bishop Marceau said, adding, “May Christ’s spirit of forgiveness prevail in the face of these barbaric acts.”
He said the dead were “victims of a heinous terrorist act” that followed “the savage murder of Professor Samuel Paty,” a Paris teacher who was beheaded on October 16 by a Muslim migrant after he showed satirical cartoons of Muhammad to school children in a lesson about free speech (Sunday Examiner, November 1).
He said persecuted African Christians understood “too well” that violent Islamists would not give up their struggle.
The cartoons were first published in 2012 in Charlie Hebdo, a magazine that has since been the target of three terrorist attacks, one of which in 2015 claimed the lives of 12 staff members.
At the Vatican, Robert Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, tweeted in solidarity with the French Church, saying extremism “must be fought with strength and determination.”
He said persecuted African Christians understood “too well” that violent Islamists would not give up their struggle.
The attack in Nice took place less than a kilometre from the scene of the July 14 Bastille Day massacre of 2016, when a man plowed a truck into a crowd on the Promenade des Anglais, killing 86 people and injuring more than 400.
French politicians held a minute’s silence ahead of a debate on new Covid-19 coronavirus restrictions, and Macron presided over an emergency Cabinet meeting about the attacks before leaving for Nice.
