France Is Living Through A 'Time Of War'

 The familiar messages of inter-faith unity show that repeated acts of jihadist violence in this country are testing relationships.

By Tom Rayner, Sky Correspondent in Rouen, France

Earlier this week, in response to the spate of terrorist attacks across Europe, Pope Francis said the world was at war - that it had "lost its peace".

On Sunday, in Rouen Cathedral, a towering Gothic edifice that still bears the scars of World War Two, Archbishop Dominique Lebrun echoed those words.

As he led the mass in memory of murdered priest Father Jacques Hamel, the archbishop said he offered prayers for peace, but warned his congregation they were once again living through "a time of war".

 A Muslim lady and a nun shake hands after the church service remembering Father Hamel

With soldiers and armed police standing guard at the Cathedral entrance, with hundreds of people killed in attacks in France the last 18 months alone, in a country still officially in a state of emergency, few would accuse him of exaggeration.

Among the hundreds attending the mass were many from the suburb of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where France's latest terrorist atrocity took place on Tuesday.

Prayers were said for those wounded in the attack, and for the nuns who witnessed it.
Thoughts and condolences were paid to Father Hamel's family.

And there was thanks and praise given to the local Muslim community - not just for their unequivocal condemnation of the attack, but for what the Archbishop described as their "courage" in joining church services to demonstrate the friendships and tolerance that exist between the two communities.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association's banner - Love for all, hatred for no one'

As they left the cathedral, Muslim leaders and their followers were applauded as they unfurled a banner that read "Love All, Hate No-one".

But in a sense, the very fact the people of Rouen and beyond have felt the need to relentlessly repeat the messages of inter-faith unity and respect reflects the growing understanding that the repeated acts of jihadist violence wrought on this country are testing those community relationships to destruction.