Priest killed by the migrant he had welcomed into the Church

The lifeless body of a priest, Olivier Mayor, 60, was discovered this morning in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, in the Vendée, in the west of the France. This was communicated by the diocese and the gendarmerie of Mortagne-sur-Sèvre, cited by the local media.

On Twitter, Interior Minister Gèrard Darmanin announced that he is going to the place where the priest was "murdered". According to France 3, the body was found on the recommendation of a man who presented himself to the gendarmerie.

The man accused of killing a priest is involved in another criminal case. In July 2020, in fact, the suspect confessed to having set fire to the cathedral of Nantes, when he worked as a volunteer in the diocese and had the task of closing the building in the evening.

A Rwandan national, he has been in France since 2012 and the man had received the deportation order. In an email sent a few hours before the fire at the Nantes cathedral, he explained that he had "personal problems".

"He was writing his resentment to various personalities who, in his eyes, had not supported him enough in his administrative proceedings," the Nantes prosecutor said at the time.

The sacristan's relatives also described a man particularly marked by his history, terrified at the thought of returning to Rwanda. Following his confession, he was indicted for "destruction and damage by fire" and imprisoned for several months before being released under judicial supervision and was awaiting trial. The need to keep it under judicial control prevented the execution of the expulsion order from the territory.

According to reports from Le Figaro, Emmanuel A., the man of Rwandan origin, confessed to the police of Mortagne-sur-Sèvre that he had killed the priest who was hosting him, the superior of the religious community of Montfortains, who was 60 years old. According to reports from the French press, Maire had welcomed the Rwandan into the community before the Nantes fire, and then again after his release.