It is therefore joining forces with the diocese of Nice as a co-plaintiff in the proceedings against the man accused of killing three people with a knife in the Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption church in Nice in October 2020.
"By bringing the case, the CEF and the diocese of Nice want to emphasise the religious dimension of the attack and achieve judicial recognition of the attack on the Christian community," explained the Bishops' Conference on Wednesday.
The Bishops' Conference also wanted to express its solidarity with the victims of the attack and their families.
According to the statement, this is the first criminal trial in which the Bishops' Conference is involved as a co-plaintiff.
The trial against the 21-year-old, who was 21 at the time of the attack, began on 10 February in Paris and is expected to be completed by the end of February. The man accused of murder and attempted murder with a terrorist background is facing life imprisonment. The Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference, Hugues de Woillemont, was present at the opening of the trial.
"We must not forget Nadine, Simone and Vincent," he said, remembering the deceased victims, two women and the sexton. Other people were seriously injured. The perpetrator stabbed one woman 24 times and almost decapitated the other. He cut the sexton's throat.
Taking the threat of terrorism to religious communities seriously
When he was arrested, the attacker had shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") several times.
The offence is said to have been committed in connection with the renewed publication of the "Mohammed caricatures" by the satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" had been involved. Four days before the knife attack, a medium associated with the al-Qaeda terrorist network had published a call to "behead French people in their churches".
The accused is said to have been in contact with jihadists in Tunisia and to have described France as a "land of infidels". "We expect the court to establish aggravating circumstances for murders committed because of the victims' religion," de Willemont continued.
The trial is an important step towards recognising the specific threat to religious communities in the fight against terrorism.
France was hit by several terrorist attacks in autumn 2020.
Before the triple murder in Nice, a young Pakistani man seriously injured two people in Paris whom he had mistaken for employees of "Charlie Hebdo" and an Islamist perpetrator also murdered the teacher teacher Samuel Patyafter he had shown the Mohammed cartoons in class.