Pope Francis on Wednesday put the late Rev. Jacques Hamel on the path toward sainthood by calling the recent murder of the French priest an act of “martyrdom.”
The leader of the Catholic Church made the remarks during a memorial Mass at the Vatican early Wednesday held in memory of Hamel, an 85-year-old priest who was slain when two terrorists stormed the church in Normandy on July 26 and slit his throat. The men were killed by police upon exiting the church, but not before they pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.
“He accepted his martyrdom there on the altar,” Francis said Wednesday, Fox News reported. “He gave his life for us so as not to deny Jesus. … He is a martyr and martyrs are beatified.”
While the pope stopped short of calling for Hamel to be canonized immediately, beatification is among the first steps in elevating a person toward sainthood. Individuals who have been beatified are typically given the title “Blessed” and honored annually with a feast day, Fox reported.
Saints typically must be attributed with performing miracles in order to become canonized, but Hamel may manage to avoid that obstacle altogether because he died a martyr for the church, Christian Today reported.
Hamel allegedly yelled “Satan, get out!” moments before he was executed by two Muslim migrants.
“Father Jacques Hamel has been slaughtered in the Cross, just as he celebrated the sacrifice of the Cross of Christ,” Francis said during Wednesday’s Mass, according to the Christian Today. “A good man, meek, a brother, who was always trying to make peace, was assassinated as if it were a criminal.”
The pope’s endorsement of Hamel comes amid a wider push within the Catholic Church aimed at having the slain priest officially canonized. Dominique Lebrun, the Archbishop of Rouen, said he will personally advocate for having Hamel granted sainthood despite the process rarely starting so soon after an individual’s death.
“The holiness of recognition procedure … can not begin until five years after the death of the person,” Mr. Lebrun said, according to Christian Today. “Formally, it is the bishop of the person’s place of death to initiate the procedure. There is a local phase with a careful survey of the life and death of the person. Then the case is sent to Rome where [it is] studied before the Pope’s decision.”
“You can put this photo in the church, because he is blessed now, and if someone tells you that you do not have the right, tell them that the Pope gave you permission,” Francis told Mr. Lebrun as he held a picture of Hamel following Wednesday’s ceremony, Breitbart reported.
Hamel formally retired from the church in 2005, but remained with the parish in the decade after and frequently stepped in when the congregation’s usual priest was indisposed.
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