An 84-year-old priest named Father Jacques Hamel had his throat slit and another person is seriously injured after two attackers stormed a church in northern France on Tuesday.Both attackers were shot dead by French police.
Police rescued three people from the church.
It happened in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass.
French President François Hollande, who traveled to the town Tuesday, said the two hostage-takers had pledged allegiance to ISIS.
A spokesman for The Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi , condemned what he said was a "barbarous killing". He went on to say that the pope was feeling "the pain and horror of this absurd violence" and "condemned in the most radical way any form of hate".