2023-10-19 17:05:00
In front of more than a thousand people, in the heart of Arras Cathedral, the funeral of Dominique Bernard was held this Thursday, October 19. He who “did not like the crowd and the honors”, was honored by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, as well as by Gabriel Attal, after being made a knight of the Legion of Honor.
On October 13, the history and geography teacher was assassinated by a former student from his middle school in Arras during a jihadist attack. The event, which is reminiscent of the murder of Samuel Paty, shocked France once again. The country immediately went on alert.
Today, while the city of Arras was paralyzed by a gigantic police force, the tributes followed one another: “We are distraught, but together. We are here, stunned, but refusing to let ourselves be crushed”, launched the Bishop of Arras Mgr Olivier Leborgne, presiding over the ceremony.
“Sensitive and discreet, he did not like the sound and fury of the world. He deeply loved his daughters, his mother and his sister. We loved each other,” declared his wife Isabelle, also a teacher.
“I see your silhouette in the teachers’ room, I always see your shirt, the cup you are holding, your mischievous smile because you have something funny to say,” continued a colleague, Aurélie.
“Mr. Bernard was kind, passionate, he liked to introduce us to literature, he always had little extra things to tell us about the authors he presented to us,” testified Maxime, one of his former students.
The ceremony was broadcast on a giant screen installed in the town hall square, in front of which several hundred people stood.
In an interview Wednesday with the Christian weekly La Vie, the mother and sister of the teacher, from a practicing Catholic family, said they hope that he “is the last” murdered teacher and that this tragedy is “an electric shock ” so that “France remains a welcoming land”.
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