The beatification process for the French priest killed by Islamist terrorists advanced rapidly at first, but now appears stalled at the Vatican.
On July 26, 2016, two Islamist terrorists slit the throat of an 85-year-old priest. He had been close to the end of celebrating Mass in a church in a suburb of Rouen, France. Very quickly, the names of Father Jacques Hamel and the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray went around the world. The news caused widespread shock. The day after this tragic death, on the papal flight to World Youth Day in Krakow, Pope Francis paid tribute to “this holy priest, who died in the very moment when he was offering prayer for the whole Church.”
Several weeks later, Pope Francis celebrated a Mass in memory of the French priest for pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Rouen in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta. The Pope noted in his homily that Father Hamel was part of the “chain of martyrs.” The Argentine pontiff urged the faithful to seek his intercession. “We ought to pray to him, because he is a martyr! Martyrs are blessed, and we should pray to him,” he said, asking for “meekness, brotherhood, peace,” and “courage.”
A special dispensation to speed up the cause
By October 2016, Pope Francis authorized the opening of Father Hamel's beatification process without waiting for the required five-year period following his death. This extremely rare dispensation has previously been granted to figures such as Mother Teresa (St. Teresa of Calcutta) and St. John Paul II.
Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen wasted no time and entrusted the role of diocesan postulator to Father Paul Vigouroux. The process was opened on April 13, 2017, and the first session was held on May 20. A few weeks earlier, Father Hamel had been recognized as a Servant of God, the first stage in the process of canonization before the titles of venerable, blessed, and saint.
The primary goal was clear: to prove Father Hamel's martyrdom. Formal recognition of his martyrdom would allow his beatification without an officially recognized miracle.
“What’s rare is that we had eyewitnesses to this martyrdom, whereas generally there are no survivors in this kind of attack,” Father Vigouroux notes. There were a few people attending the Mass; only Fr. Hamel was killed. However, the advanced age of those present during the attack made it necessary to proceed quickly. Within 22 months, the file was completed and sent to Rome.
A cause at a standstill?
Weighing more than 220 pounds, the 11,000-page dossier includes 600 of Father Hamel's homilies and 63 witness testimonies. In April 2019, the file was submitted to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. “A few months later, we received a rescript from the Vatican declaring that the file was canonically valid,” the diocesan postulator told Aleteia. This cause then joined the hundreds of files currently being studied by the dicastery.
Since then, there has been no sign of progress. Seven years after the file's submission, Aleteia was unable to confirm whether a Roman postulator had been appointed. That’s an essential step for the Vatican to begin its review.
“The Church runs on its own time,” Father Vigouroux says, brushing aside concerns. “We hurried for 22 months; the moment has now come to take our time.” The priest, who compiled the voluminous file, explains the benefits of this wait: “It allows us to observe that all this is not just a flash in the pan and that people continue to seek his intercession.”
It is unclear now many cases are on the desks in the Vatican offices, but for example, Aleteia just reported that Spain alone has almost 3,500 cases pending.
Possible signs of hope
The popes themselves have referred to Father Hamel several times since his death, a sign that the priest has not fallen into oblivion. Pope Francis received Roseline Hamel, the late priest's sister, in 2023. In January 2026, Pope Leo XIV held him up as a source of inspiration for Catholic journalists. “He always believed in the value of dialogue and mutual and patient listening,” his message said. “May his example encourage you to be seekers of truth in the love that explains everything.”
In a message sent on his behalf by Cardinal Parolin, the Pope urged them to let his witness inspire them to become “seekers of truth in the love that explains everything.”
Could the 10-year anniversary of his martyrdom, which the Archdiocese of Rouen is preparing to commemorate, give new momentum to this cause?
“I don’t think that Rome is particularly sensitive to that,” Father Vigouroux says. “It’s important to celebrate this anniversary in our parishes to keep alive the idea that the story doesn’t stop at his martyrdom.”
The diocesan postulator stresses that this death must bring forth more than just blood: “goodness, beauty, goodwill, and communion.”
Nevertheless, the faithful will have to keep waiting before seeing Father Hamel receive the title of blessed. In Rome, the timeline for canonization causes is often measured in decades, not months.
