The first audience of the process in view of the Beatification of Father Jacques Hamel was held on Saturday, May 20, 2017 in the Chapel of Aubigne of the Archbishop of Rouen, France, states a press release of the diocese.
Some fifty people – families, witnesses of the murder, parishioners and Muslim friends of Saint Etienne du Rouvray – gathered under the presidency of the Archbishop, Monsignor Dominique Lebrun. The meeting, which lasted an hour, was organized by the Postulator, Father Paul Vigouroux.
Father Vigouroux asked officially for the Archbishop’s approval of the opening of the process in view of the recognition of the martyrdom of Father Hamel.
The tribunal was set up, with a Delegate Judge, a Promoter of Justice and three clerks. In the forthcoming months they will interview 69 witnesses.
“Monsignor Dominque Lebrun stressed the spiritual reach of this event,” indicates the press release.
Recall that, if the “martyrdom” is recognized, the Beatification does not require another ‘miracle.”
Father Jacques Hamel was murdered, while celebrating Mass, by Muslim terrorists on July 26, 2016 in his church at Saint Etienne du Rouvray, on the outskirts of Rouen.
Pope Francis described him, during the Mass at Saint Martha’s on September 14, 2016, as a “good, gentle, fraternal man who always sought to make peace” and he stated that he was a “martyr.”
The Pope decided to dispense with the five-year delay, usually necessary after the death of a baptized person, to open the process of Beatification of Father Jacques Hamel. The announcement was made by Monsignor Lebrun on October 2, 2016, during a Mass to mark the reopening of the Saint Etienne du Rouvray church.
Father Jacques Hamel’s Breviary was deposited in Rome’s Saint Bartholomew’s Basilica, the Basilica of New Martyrs, by Monsignor Dominque Lebrun on September 15, 2016.
