Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul
© Sebastien Salom-Gomis, AFPFile photo of a French police officer outside the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul cathedral in Nantes taken on July 19, 2020 - a day after a fire damaged the cathedral.
A Rwandan national suspected of causing a major fire that ravaged the cathedral in the French city of Nantes last year murdered a Catholic priest in western France on Monday, the interior minister and a source close to the investigation said.

"All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic murder of a priest in the Vendée region," French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on Twitter, saying he was heading to the scene.

A source close to the investigation, who asked not to be named, told the AFP that the suspect had earlier gone to police in the town of Mortagne-sur-Sevre and declared he had killed a priest.

The slain priest, 60, had been welcoming the man into his church for several months, according to the source.

The man, a Rwandan national named as Emmanuel A., has confessed to being behind the fire at the Gothic Nantes cathedral that horrified France on July 18, 2020.


Comment: For an idea of how serious attacks against churches have become, in just 2017 there were at least 878 acts of vandalism and arson, and this was before the infernos at Notre Dame and Saint-Sulspice: Burning Christianity: Europe's churches are under attack


He had initially been placed under arrest before being freed under judicial control.

Senator Bruno Retailleau, a conservative who represents the Vendée region, identified the victim as Olivier Maire. He said the local Catholic church had been housing the man.

French President Emmanuel Macron "expressed all his sympathy" to the local religious community of Montfortians while Prime Minister Jean Castex expressed his "deep dismay" over the tragedy.

Earlier on Monday, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who accuses the government of being weak on immigration, sought to capitalise on the incident, saying that in France "you can be an illegal migrant, set fire to a cathedral, not be expelled and then reoffend by murdering a priest".

Interior Minister Darmanin immediately accused her of "causing debate without knowing the facts" saying the man could not be expelled from France while he was under judicial supervision.

Immigration is set to be a major issue when Le Pen challenges centrist President Emmanuel Macron for the presidency next year.


Comment: The urgent issue of uncontrolled mass migration has taken a bit of backseat whilst France protests even more pressing matters: Well over 230,000 protested against mandatory injections and coronavirus IDs in France on Saturday


Priceless artefacts lost in 2020 blaze

The Nantes blaze came 15 months after the devastating 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which raised questions about the risks for other historic churches across France.

While firefighters were able to contain the Nantes blaze after just two hours and save the main structure, its famed organ, which dated from 1621 and had survived the French revolution and World War II bombardment, was destroyed.

Also lost were priceless artefacts and paintings, including a work by the 19th-century artist Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin and stained glass windows that contained remnants of 16th-century glass. Repairs are due to take several years.