Breitbart News
written by Jack Montgomery
Monday August 9, 2021
The migrant who confessed to starting a devastating fire at Nantes Cathedral has stabbed a 60-year-old priest to death after being released, according to reports.
40-year-old migrant Emmanuel Abayisenga, from Rwanda, has reportedly confessed to stabbing Father Olivier Maire to death in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, south of the city where he set the historic cathedral on fire last year.
“All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic murder of a priest in the Vendee region,” said President Emmanuel Macron’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, in comments shared on social media, adding that he was en route to the scene.
The killing has incensed national populist opposition leader Marine Le Pen, who lamented the fact that “you can be an illegal migrant, set fire to a cathedral, not be expelled and then reoffend by murdering a priest” in comments quoted by AFP.
“The priest is 60 years old and had welcomed the suspect into his community after he was released from prison,” an investigating source said of the killing, as reported by The Sun.
“[The suspect] was recently placed under judicial control, and went to live in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre,” the source added.
“He said to have carried out the killing on Monday morning, before handing himself into police.”
The source painted a slightly different picture of the killing, however, suggesting the migrant appeared to have “beaten his victim to death”, according to early evidence.
Breitbart.com
written by Kurt Zindulka
Monday August 9, 2021
Emmanuel Abayisenga, the Rwandan migrant who confessed to setting fire to the Nantes Cathedral and to the murder of a 60-year-old priest, has been revealed to have met with Pope Francis in 2016.
An investigation from the French Catholic newspaper La Croix identified the Nantes Cathedral arsonist as having met with the pope during a trip to the Vatican in 2016.
A photo of the meeting between Abayisenga and the pontiff was shared on social media by French reporter Arnaud Bédat on Monday, following the reported murder confession.
Pope Francis has taken a pro-migration position during his tenure as the Bishop of Rome, launching a two-year campaign to lecture people on the hardships faced by migrants in order to advance a “shift in thinking” on the issue worldwide.
Last week the pope said in an address in Saint Peter’s Square: “Let us open our heart to refugees; let us make their sorrows and their joys our own; let us learn courageous resilience from them!”
“And in this way, all together, we will make a more human community grow, one big family,” the pontiff added.
Several people interviewed by the paper claimed that his mental health further declined following his detention after setting fire to Nantes Cathedral on July 18, 2020.
On the day of the fire, Brother Jean-Luc recalled: “I told [Abayisenga] the cathedral had burned down. That day he didn’t have his usual gaze, he was like in another world. I didn’t want to disturb him any further.”
Abayisenga was taken in by Father Olivier Maire, who provided the migrant with shelter and food, despite the attack on the cathedral. On Monday, the Rwandan reportedly confessed to stabbing the priest to death.
President Emmanuel Macron wrote of the murdered priest: “He bore the generosity and love of the other even in the features of his face. On behalf of the Nation, I pay tribute to Father Olivier Maire. Warm thoughts for Montfortians and all Catholics in France. Protecting those who believe is a priority.”
The President of the Conference of the Bishops of France, Mgr Éric de Moulins, said: “He will have lived following Christ to the end, in the unconditional welcome of all. While waiting for the more complete elements that the investigation will bring, I pray for his family, his religious brothers. I pray for all the population traumatized by this tragedy, for their murderer too, in great psychological drift at the very least.”
Following the reported confession of the stabbing of the 60-year-old Father Olivier Maire, the leader of the populist right-wing National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, wrote: “In France, it is, therefore, possible to be illegal, to set fire to the cathedral, never to be expelled, and to re-offend by murdering a priest.
“What is happening in our country is of unprecedented gravity: it is the complete bankruptcy of the State and of [Minister of the Interior] Gérald Darmanin.”
For his part, Mr Darmanin denied that it was possible to deport the Rwandan migrant, claiming: “This foreigner was not deportable despite his deportation order as long as his judicial control was not lifted.”
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