Fr Jacques Hamel, RIP.
‘The horrifying attack on Fr Jacques Hamel and parishioners in a parish church near Rouen has a very personal connection. In 2009 when we went to France to commemorate Bishop Viard’s 200th anniversary, I celebrated Mass at the birthplace of St Marcellin Champagnat with Archbishop Dominique Lebrun, in whose diocese the attack took place. It is hard for us in peaceful Aoteaora New Zealand to comprehend such violence, or know what we can do to help. Our best response is to unite ourselves with the words of Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen: ‘There was not one victim but three in this attack, the priest and the two young men who made the attack…The Catholic Church can take up no weapons other than those of prayer and brotherhood among people of good will.’