A Catholic priest was murdered in France and the suspect is believed to be responsible for the fire at Nantes cathedral in 2020

A Rwandan citizen suspected of causing a major fire that ravaged the cathedral in the French city of Nantes last year killed a Catholic priest in western France on Monday, the interior minister and a source close to the investigation cited by local media.

“All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic murder of a priest in Vendée”French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter early Monday as he visited the scene.

A source close to the investigation, who requested anonymity, told AFP that the suspect arrived by his own means at the police station in the town of Mortagne-sur-Sèvre and declared that he had killed a Catholic priest.

The 60-year-old victim took the man to his church, which served as a parish assistant, the source said.

The killer is a Rwandan citizen named Emmanuel Abayisenga, a refugee in France since 2012.

Abayisenga also reportedly confessed that he was behind the fire at Nates Gothic Cathedral on July 18, 2020.

For this fact, he was arrested, but later he was released under judicial supervision.

According to local media after his release, he spent several months in a mental hospital.

The news had a big impact in France and has already been used by the opposition of current President Emmanuel Macron to draw criticism of the government’s allegedly weak immigration policies.

“In France, you can be an illegal migrant, set fire to a cathedral, not be expelled and then reoffend by murdering a priest”, far-right leader Marine Le Pen said in her networks.

Le Pen is one of the main contenders in the French presidential race next year, in which Macron will seek re-election and where immigration will be a very important issue.

For his part, Senator Bruno Retailleau, a conservative representing the Vendée, identified the victim as Oliver Marie, priest of the local Catholic Church.

“Deeply surprised by the terrible murder of a priest who had taken charge of his murderer”, Retailleau said on Twitter.

“What was this man doing in France? ” he asked the legislator, who is also in the package of possible presidential candidates.

In the Nantes fire caused by Abayisenga 15 months ago, his famous organ, dating from 1621, was lost and had survived the French Revolution and the bombing of World War II, a priceless historical artifact that was destroyed by the flames.

Other valuable objects and paintings were also lost, including a work by 19th century artist Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin and stained glass windows containing remains of 16th century glass.

The Nantes fire came a year after the Notre-Dame de Paris fire in 2019, two events that raised serious doubts about the real risk to other historic churches across France.

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