Amid the ongoing riots that have engulfed France since June 27th following the death of 17-year-old Arab teenager Nahel M., reports emerged that a violent attack on an elderly French priest in Saint-Étienne was related to the general unrest. The Diocese of Saint-Étienne later published an official statement disputing this.
On Thursday evening, June 29th in Saint-Étienne, capital of the administrative division of the Loire, unknown actors assaulted and robbed Father Francis Palle.
Tribune Chretienne, one of the first to report on the incident, said that Fr. Palle, a 79-year-old member of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul congregation, was brutally attacked by a group of rioters who left him seriously injured and unconscious.
According to unnamed eyewitnesses, a group of rioters surrounded him “for no apparent reason,” striking him “with extreme violence, causing him to fall violently to the ground,” according to the Tribune Chretienne report. While he lay on the ground, they continued beating him. In addition, they also robbed Palle, taking his cell phone and wallet.
Initial reports indicated that following the assault, an emergency team was quickly dispatched to the scene, and that Palle was in intensive care at a nearby hospital, being treated for his grave injuries.
When Damien Rieu of Éric Zemmour’s Reconquête party later reported on the incident, it quickly went viral on Twitter and other social networks.
Without providing evidence or a source for its claim, outlet Catholic Arena tweeted on July 1st that the priest “was stripped, beaten and left fighting for his life after an attempted lynching by Islamic race rioters.”
“The 80 year old [sic] priest,” it continued, “was one of many Catholics targeted as the country slips into complete anarchy.”
Two days after the incident, on July 1st, the Diocese of Saint-Etienne issued an official statement in an effort to “set the record straight.”
In its statement, it said that “very partially informed posts” on the incident had been circulating on social networks. While it was true that Father Palle was the victim of an assault during which he was knocked to the ground and punched, and was subsequently robbed, the 79-year-old priest claims he never lost consciousness.
Attended to by the fire department, he remained in hospital for a few hours for observation. He was discharged before midnight, naturally shocked and with bruises. However, Father Francis Palle resumed his activities on Saturday.
Contradicting earlier reports, the diocese said that the attack “does not appear to be linked to his [Palle’s] status as a religious priest,” and “did not take place within the framework of the violent events of recent days.”
In an update published after the diocese statement was released, Tribune Chretienne said it had learned that Palle “was not wearing any external sign or garb that might identify him as a religious man” at the time of the assault, which led them to believe the attack was purely motivated by financial gain.
