Pope Francis told reporters that it is wrong to equate Islam with terrorism on his flight back to the Vatican Sunday after spending five days in Poland for World Youth Day. "It's not right to identify Islam with violence. It's not right and it's not true," the pope said when asked about last week's attack in which a priest was killed in a French Church, the latest in a string of recent atrocities committed by Islamist extremists. "I don't like to talk of Islamic violence because every day, when I read the newspapers, I see violence, a who man who kills his girlfriend, a man who kills his mother-in-law. "These are baptized Catholics. If I speak of Islamic violence, then I have to speak of Catholic violence". Thousands of Muslims attended Mass on Sunday in churches in Italy and France to show the faiths are united against violence.
Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel, who was killed in a terrorist attack last week while celebrating Mass at his church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
Meanwhile, ISIS released their magazine Dabiq with a cover image of a cross being knocked off the roof of a church under the headline "Let's Break the Cross", with copy inside the magazine inviting its "hidden soldiers" to attack the "crusaders".
Throughout France, unprecedented displays of Muslim-Christian solidarity have taken place.
"We're here to spread our message of peace and solidarity to the Christian community. Our presence is worth more than so many words," said Anouar Kbibech, president of the French Muslim Council, in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Dalil Boubakeur, his predecessor and rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, said that Muslim participation at the Mass is "an essential act in the history of our two religions in France", adding that "we've never had such a strong bond before".
"The situation now is very serious. The time has come to change our behaviors, to not divide ourselves," he said.
The Saint-Etienne Mosque refused to bury the remains of Hamel's attaker Adel Kermiche.
At the cathedral in Rouen, just 10 kilometres from Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, about 2,000 Catholics were joined by about a thousand Muslims in tribute to Father Hamel.
"We welcome our Muslim friends," said Monsignor Lebrun, who celebrated the mass in Rouen after an urgent return from Krakow where World Youth Day was being celebrated.
"They wanted to be with us this morning and I want to thank them in the name of all Christians," Lebrun said.
"In this way you are highlighting that you reject death and violence in the name of God. As we've heard directly from you, this isn't Islam," he said
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