It is an ocher-cut stone building, of those from which the monuments of Paris were built. Inside the one-story house, with shutters almost always closed, lies this Monday, November 4, the atrociously mutilated corpse of a 91-year-old old man. A crucifix is buried in his throat. At the beginning of the rue du Pont-Roy, pasted on the gate, the pink seal of the gendarmes indicates the name of the victim: Roger Matassoli.
In the peaceful hamlet of Ronquerolles, in Agnetz, a village of 3000 inhabitants at an equal distance from Paris and Amiens, in the Oise, this retired priest had hitherto, quietly, spent peaceful days.
Faced with the state of the body, violent death is beyond doubt. After the autopsy, the public prosecutor of Beauvais, Florent Boura, evokes "a death by asphyxiation". "He was not strangled," said the magistrate. Traces of beatings were noted on the abdomen, the face and the skull.
"He was literally slaughtered"
The details of the crime are barbaric: in addition to the crucifix in the esophagus, the eyes of the man of God were sunk in their sockets. "He was literally massacred," says a source familiar with the matter.
“It is not the kind of event that we think is going to happen here. This is very quiet. We didn't often see this gentleman, he didn't go out much. It is terrible to leave like that, ”confide dumbfounded neighbors.
The elected officials of the sector also fall from the clouds. Many were even unaware of the presence of the religious on their lands. "I didn't know him," says the village mayor, Jean-Pierre Rousselle (SE). “I had discovered its existence in 2008 when the parish priest of Agnetz died, says Edouard Courtial, senator (LR) at the head of the village for twelve years. I wanted there to be more regular masses. I had thought that he could provide services, but in the end that was not done. "
"We think of his family and pray for him," said Archbishop Jacques Benoit-Gonnin, bishop of Beauvais, Noyon and Senlis. “He was a very cordial, simple, warm man, I am sure he had many friends in the area, testifies Father Bernard Grenier, parish priest in Clermont-de-l'Oise, the neighboring parish. He made himself available as much as he could, he was going to take the Eucharist to his parishioners, he was a good guy. The comments of the faithful "in UDP", for "in union of prayers", flourish on the Facebook page of the diocese.
A valued man, known to all
An old man still alert for his age. It is about the only memory that Roger Matassoli finally left in Ronquerolles where he had settled in the house next to his sister, when he stopped officiating in 2009. "He had since retired from Many years, the retirement age being around 75 years for priests, then modestly slides the communication of the Catholic Church in the Oise. We no longer saw him, neither at assemblies nor at meetings. "
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In the parish of Froissy over which he reigned 42 years, he was however known to all. The busy man traveled the small country roads of the dozen municipalities in his sector with a sporty driving behind the wheel of his Citroën. With the latest, he introduced the local youth to driving.
“He was driving fast, always in a hurry, looking at his watch all the time, laughing at a quadra, the first child in the village baptized by Father Matassoli. When you were an altar boy, you prepared everything for mass, it happened at the last moment. "
Roger Matassoli and his twin brother were born in Creil (Oise) on November 8, 1928. Their mother, Jeanne, was in a relationship with Goffredo, an Italian carpenter naturalized French by decree a few months after the wedding in 1934. Jeanne had settled in Agnetz after the death of Goffredo in 1951.
"He gave beautiful sermons"
Since she was a widow, she visited her son Roger every week, regularly accompanied by her daughter Marie-José. Apart from the two women, "he didn't talk about his family". Except for his twin, whom he liked to describe sometimes as his "exact opposite, because he was a communist".
As of his arrival in 1967 in Saint-André-Farivillers, after having made his first steps as abbot in Clermont eleven years earlier, he seduces his flock, amazed by this modern priest of 39 years, who does not wear the cassock but always "A red cap". "My parents liked him, he gave beautiful sermons," explains Alain, a Campremy child who has not finished his catechism. But he was not joking with the schedules, he had to be serious. Sometimes he did not hesitate to swing targeted peaks in full office. This is also why everyone stood up. "
"He had good interpersonal skills, accompanied the faithful to the exit of the church by running his hand through the hair of the kids," recalls an occasional visitor to the village. "He knew how to do it: Mass, he did it right," says another. At Christmas the church was full. The Father was esteemed. I had invited him to eat once at the farm, but that's it. He did not have his habits with us. He frequented the crested. "
The local families, who live mostly on the land, have been anchored here for generations. Nothing has really changed. The church is nestled at the crossroads of the five hamlets of the village, surrounded by fields. Only wind turbines have changed the landscape in recent years. The ancients wore their short pants on the benches of the same churches and the same schools. Small bitterness crosses time, influences too. "There were the big landowners, the elected officials, the notables ... and the others, who had less weight," analyzes a girl from the country.
A sacred character
If he dined regularly with the Dean of Froissy, Father Matassoli had his rituals for lunch. In the 1970s, parishioners fought, sometimes literally, to have it at their table. Some were jealous of his associates. "At that time, it was in practice to give the priest a chicken, a pie or a cake," recalls Mauricette. But it was not uncommon for him to offer them in turn to those with whom he was always poked. "
"Mr. Matassoli? It was quite a character! "Shoves the daughter of this Campremy couple, about twenty years old. "He refused to baptize my niece because at three years old, it was too late for him," continues his mother. I was afraid it would be the same for my son but it happened. On the other hand, I took remarks for his first name, because it is not that of a saint. "
Her neighbor was not so lucky. “When we settled in the village 52 years ago, I went to see him to baptize my daughter. After asking me my name, he replied that he did not want to hear about this family ... I never knew why! She sighs.
"He did not like girls", understands a neighbor of the presbytery of the hamlet of Hédencourt in Saint-André-Farivillers where he lived from 1967 to 2009. However, more than one dreamed of becoming an altar boy ... in vain. “When I was old, I asked to be, as it started to be done at the time in certain parishes. But he never wanted to. "
Above all, only boys had access to "the key to paradise". It was the name given to a room on the top floor of the presbytery, a red brick building set back from the street and hidden behind a modest chapel. A room that dazzled children. " It was wonderful ! Laurent, 46, is still enthusiastic today. An electric train circuit went all around this huge room, ran on shelves. There was a train station, trees, snowmen ... The abbot made all the decorations himself, by hand, down to the smallest detail. And there was also Coke at his house! The girls were jealous of not being admitted. "
They were also in fine weather, when Thursdays were synonymous with water games with "the inflatable pool he had put in the yard".
"He went upstairs to check the view I had on his garden ..."
The opportunity for kids to snort, shirtless, but not only. Because very quickly, false notes with sordid resonances are heard behind the concert of praise. The troubled past of Roger Matassoli inexorably resurfaces. "He set up scout camps on his land," says a neighbor of the presbytery. One day he came to visit my house, supposedly out of curiosity. He went upstairs to check the view I had on his garden. He didn't organize camps after ... "
But Alexandre V., 19, the main suspect in the murder, did not know this time. On the day of the crime, he was arrested in Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise) for traffic offenses. Excited, incoherent, he drives the priest's car. The gendarmes warn his father, Stéphane *, a resident of Beauvais who declares that he knows the religious. He then goes to Agnetz where he discovers the corpse and gives the alert.
Eric *, Alexander's stepfather, says: “Stéphane called us because he went there and saw Matassoli on the ground. I went there so as not to leave him alone. The room was in disarray, everything was turned upside down, crushed. I did not see his head but his body through the door pane. We suspected that he was dead. We did not try to return because there was going to be an investigation and readings. "
"In his subconscious, when we see what he has done, we tell ourselves that Alexander was tired of his disgusting look and made him swallow his religion," analyzes the stepfather. Because Alexandre knew Roger Matassoli. The monk gave him money. And the young man went regularly to his house. He cleaned there naked.
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