Pope Francis comforts martyr Fr. Jacques Hamel's sister at special service

Pope Francis honors all.

Fr. Jacques Hamel was brutally murdered by ISIS terrorists, prompting a massive outcry.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Pope Francis has since declared the priest a martyr and opened Fr. Hamel's Cause for canonization.

In taking things a step further, the pontiff has also met with Fr. Hamel's sister, Roselyne Hamel, and comforted her while she still mourns the loss of her brother.

According to the Catholic Herald, Pope Francis met with Hamel on Saturday in a Normandy church, where 20th and 21st-century martyrs were honored in a special prayer service.

When his Holiness met Hamel during the evening service in St. Bartholomew Basilica on Tiberina Island in Rome, he gripped her hands and shared a few comforting words.

He heard her tell others in the church that her brother died because of "two youths radicalised by a discourse of hate," which prompted him to explain modern-day martyrs teach "us that with the strength of love, meekness, one can combat arrogance, violence, war, and with patience, achieve peace."

During his service, Pope Francis prayed "persecuted Christians are protected, and that peace soon comes to the world."

He also shared a personal memory of when he paid a visit to a migrant detention facility in Lesbos, Greece, where a Muslim father of three shared that his Christian wife was killed when "terrorists came...and asked what our religion was.'"

The man's wife had her throat slashed right in front of him when she refused to remove the cross hanging from her neck.

"She is looking down at us from heaven," he stated.

The pontiff continued, sharing the many sufferings of refugees locked away in detention facilities, praising Italy and Greece for welcoming the refugees and migrants, and added he hopes the same generosity will spread to other European countries.

Many martyrs were named during the service and some received tributes, including Paul Schneider, a Reformed Church pastor who died in the Nazi's Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939.

Karl Schneider, the pastor's son, spoke Saturday to say the Church "has the task of being vigilant about the state" and his father was killed because he wanted to ensure "the German people kept a Christian orientation in the state and society."

Many others were mentioned during the special service, all of whom Pope Francis honored in words and actions.

Please pray for the Christian martyrs around the world and for those that are affected by their premature loss.

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