A call for tolerance across religions was made during the reopening of the church in Normandy, France on Sunday where Islamist extremists slit the throat of a priest more than two months ago.
The church also performed a special cleansing ritual, according to an Associated Press report.
Two 19-year-old Islamist radicals killed 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel on July 26 while the latter was celebrating Mass at the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy.
The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group later claimed responsibility for the attack, in which the two youthful militants also held hostage two nuns and an elderly couple. The police gunned down both attackers as they left the church.
The call for religious tolerance as well as forgiveness, reconciliation and peace was made during Sunday's Mass and church reopening, according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA). It echoed the oft-repeated call made by Hamel himself as shared by his sister, Roselyne, during his funeral in August.
Roselyne told the thousands gathered at the church at that time that her brother had been a man of "mercy and love" who "chose to serve God so that he can cultivate love and sharing and tolerance among people of all faiths and denominations, believers and non-believers, throughout his life," according to a BBC report.
She said Hamel's message to everyone would be: "Let us learn to live together. Let us be the workers and artisans of peace, each one in his own way."
In the homily, Rouen Archbishop Dominique Lebrun called for forgiveness, quoting the New Testament command to love your neighbours, "as brutal and unfair and horrible as Jacques' death was."
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has conveyed his intent for the speedy beatification of Hamel as he waived the traditional five-year waiting period for this process leading to sainthood, CNA reports.
The French diocese of Rouen has officially begun an inquiry into Hamel's beatification after receiving a note from the Pope, Archbishop Lebrun announced during Sunday's mass and church reopening.
A five-year waiting period is typically required after the death of a person before a diocese can begin official investigations for the beatification.
Pope Francis had previously said that he already considered Hamel a martyr during a Sept. 14 Mass at the Vatican in memory of the priest, an event attended by Lebrun, who was Hamel's bishop.
According to Lebrun, the Pope told him to put a photo of Hamel in the church where he was martyred.
"After he [Pope Francis] greeted everyone, he was signing the photo and told me: you can put this photo in the church because he (Father Hamel) is blessed now; and if someone tells you that you have no right, you tell them that the Pope has given you permission," Archbishop Lebrun told a news conference.
