The murder of a French priest on Monday was the latest in a number of killings of priests around the world. On Monday, Father Olivier Maire was murdered in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, a commune in the French province of Vendée. Father Maire was the provincial superior of the Montfort Missionaries (Company of Mary). The murder suspect who turned himself in to police, 40-year-old Emmanuel Abayisenga, is a Rwandan man who had also been charged with committing arson at Nantes cathedral in 2020. Abayisenga also met Pope Francis in a 2016 audience at the Vatican. A Nov. 11, 2016, photo first published by the French Catholic newspaper La Croix showed Abayisenga greeting Pope Francis. The killing of Father Maire also occurred five years after another French priest, Father Jacques Hamel, was murdered in a terrorist attack while saying Mass. Father Hamel was killed in the town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in northern France, and the five-year anniversary of his death was recently commemorated on July 26. His attackers in that case were linked with a Syria-based ISIS operative. Pope Francis had already waived the five-year waiting period to open Father Hamel’s cause for beatification, referring to him in 2016 as “part of this chain of martyrs.”
Catholic Priest’s Murder in France: Recent Priest Killings Worldwide| National Catholic Register
Catholic Priest’s Murder in France: Recent Priest Killings Worldwide| National Catholic Register
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