It has been 10 years since the jihadist attack at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. The attack took place on November 13, 2015 and left 130 dead and more than 400 injured.
A concert by the American band Eagles of Death Metal had just begun when three jihadists stormed in and opened fire out of nowhere inside the venue; they took hostages and later blew themselves up when the police arrived.
Immediately afterward, Pope Francis spoke out, condemning jihadist violence:
POPE FRANCIS
So much barbarity leaves us dismayed, and we ask ourselves how the human heart can conceive and carry out such horrible acts, which have shaken not only France but the entire world. In the face of such acts, one cannot help but condemn this unspeakable affront to the dignity of the human person.
Cardinal Parolin, months earlier, as the Vatican’s Secretary of State and top diplomat of the Holy See, had already acknowledged the existence of terrorist threats.
March 2015
CARD. PIETRO PAROLIN
Vatican Secretary of State
I believe that today it is essential to accept one another in our differences. That is the issue—how to reconcile the differences that we have and that continue to emerge: cultural, religious. How to turn them into opportunities for mutual enrichment, for growing together rather than for division and violence.
On the other hand, in 2016, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar visited the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis. The Pontiff urged religious leaders not to isolate themselves and to condemn what had happened. Following the meeting, the Grand Imam traveled from Rome to Paris, where he paid tribute to the victims of the Bataclan concert hall.
Trans. VL
