PRIEST’S MURDER SHOWS ‘THIS IS WAR,’ SAYS POPE
• Pope Francis warned grimly Wednesday that the world was at war, but cautioned against labelling it a war among religions.
The Pope was speaking the day after an elderly French priest was murdered as he celebrated mass by two assailants who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
Asked about the slaying of the priest, Francis replied: “It’s war, we don’t have to be afraid to say this.”
He then sought to avoid any misunderstanding of his definition of war.
“I only want to clarify that, when I speak of war, I am really speaking of war,” he said. “A war of interests, for money, resources, dominion of peoples.”
“I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don’t want war. The others want war,” he added.
He also reiterated earlier remarks likening the current violence to a Third World War in “segments.”
The Pope’s spokesman later elaborated on the remarks about a world in war.
“He wanted to specify very clearly, he doesn’t mean a war of religions,” the spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi said.
The Pope was speaking at the start of his first trip to eastern Europe, where antimigrant sentiments have been rising. The Pope encouraged Europe to welcome refugees from war, hunger and religious persecution and called for “courage” and “compassion.”
Francis is celebrating World Youth Day in Poland, where the conservative government has shut the doors to migrants and many fear that accepting Muslim refugees would threaten the nation’s security and its Catholic identity.
As he started the five-day trip, he told an audience of Poland’s president, diplomats and other dignitaries that what is needed is “a spirit of readiness to welcome those fleeing from wars and hunger, and solidarity with those deprived of their fundamental rights, including the right to profess one’s faith in freedom and safety.”
The Pope spoke as horrifying details emerged Wednesday about the attack at a French village church.
Two attackers took five hostages Tuesday at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northwest France and slit the throat of the elderly priest saying morning mass. A nun at the mass slipped out to raise the alarm and both attackers, one of them a local man, were then killed by police outside the church.
One of the hostages at the church, an 86-year-old woman, said Wednesday the attackers had handed her husband, Guy, a cellphone and demanded he take photos or video of the priest — 85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel — after he was slain. Her husband was then slashed in four places by the attackers and is in hospital with serious injuries.
The woman, identified only as Jeanine, told RMC radio her husband played dead to stay alive. Two nuns were held hostage along with the couple and the priest.
“The terrorists held me with a revolver at my neck,” she said, adding it was not clear to her now whether the weapon was real or fake. “He (the priest) fell down looking upward, toward us.”
The Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said the two attackers had knives and fake explosives — one a phoney suicide belt covered in tin foil.
On Wednesday, the ISIL-affiliated Amaq news agency released a video allegedly showing the church attackers sitting on a floor, clasping hands and pledging allegiance to the group.
The speaker in the video identified himself by the jihadist nom de guerre Abul Jaleel al-Hanafi, and said his compatriot was called Ibn Omar. French prosecutors have previously identified the former as Adel Ker-miche, a 19-year-old who grew up in the town and tried to travel to Syria twice last year using family members’ identity documents.
With the attack threat for France ranked extremely high, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France is working to protect 56 remaining summer events and may consider cancelling some.
Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 4,000 members of the Sentinel military force will patrol Paris, while 6,000 will patrol in the provinces. They are being bolstered by tens of thousands of police and reservists.
François Hollande, meanwhile, presided over a defence council and Cabinet meeting in Paris after speaking with Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders.
The archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, called on Catholics to “overcome hatred that comes in their heart” and not to allow ISIL “to set children of the same family upon each other.”
Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the main Paris mosque, said France’s Muslims must push for better training of Muslim clerics and urged that reforming French Muslim institutions be put on the agenda. He did not elaborate.
In the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, young and old were stunned by the attack.
An 18-year-old neighbour said he had seen Kermiche three days earlier in nearby Rouen wearing a long Islamic robe.
When he heard about the church attack, “I knew it was him, I was sure,” the man said, identifying himself only as Redwan. He said Kermiche had told him and others about his efforts to get to Syria and “he was saying we should go there and fight for our brothers.”