One person detained in Normandy church attack investigation

The Paris prosecutor’s office says one person has been detained in the investigation into an attack on a church that left a priest dead and was claimed by ISIS.

A prosecutor’s office spokesman said the person was detained on Tuesday, but gave no details on the identity or location.

The Paris prosecutor’s office oversees investigations involving terrorism.

Two attackers took hostages in a church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning Mass, slitting the throat of Fr Jacques Hamel before being killed by police. Authorities are trying to determine whether they had accomplices.

Meanwhile, an Italian politician is urging Pope Francis to put the slain French priest, Fr Jacques Hamel, on a fast track for sainthood.

Roberto Maroni, the president of the Lombard region, said in an appeal circulated on social media that “Fr Jacques is a martyr of faith” and requested that the pope “immediately proclaim him St Jacques.”

Shortly after the appeal, the hashtage #santosubito, which translates as “saint immediately,” began circulating on Twitter.

The canonisation process is a lengthy one involving two miracles attributed to the person’s intercession, but in the case of a martyr only one miracle is needed, after beatification. There must first be a declaration by the Vatican that the person indeed died for the faith.

Ireland’s prime minister says it is “particularly brutal” that people have been attacked in a church, a traditional place of sanctuary.

Enda Kenny says the killing of a priest by knife-wielding attackers in France’s Normandy region is especially awful because “terror and murder have been visited upon innocent people at a time when they have been so physically vulnerable and so spiritually hopeful.”

Kenny spoke in London after a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May. May called the attack “sickening” and sent condolences to the people of France.