Feraulaer
18-08-2005, 02:05
I thought you all should know this. Eventhough I'm not religious, I am in shock. How can you kill such a kind and loving man?
Wed Aug 17,12:27 PM ET
TAIZE, France (AFP) - The French-based ecumenical Taize community is trying to take stock of the fatal stabbing of its popular 90-year-old founder, overshadowing a global Catholic youth festival starting in Germany.
Roger Schutz, a popular Christian figure known simply as Brother Roger, was killed late Tuesday in his Reconciliation church in Taize, in eastern France's Burgundy region, during a prayer service.
As a German cleric arrived to take over the group, messages of sadness came from Pope Benedict XVI, French government ministers and other dignitaries.
A 36-year-old Romanian woman believed to be mentally disturbed was in police custody for allegedly plunging a knife into his back three times in front of 2,500 mostly young people attending the service.
Schutz, credited with infusing young people around the world with Christian teachings and religious tolerance, is replaced by his nominated successor Alois Leser, a 51-year-old German Catholic.
Leser told AFP he planned to continue Schutz's work.
"I can smile today but my heart is in pain," he said. "We are grateful for the path Brother Roger opened for us and that we will continue."
He said he had a "heavy heart" returning to Taize. "I came quickly to be here in the heart of the community because the brothers are dispersed around the world but we have need of a home."
At prayers with young followers, he said he gave thanks for all the messages coming in, "and I said that we will trust together in God."
Schutz, a Swiss-born Protestant theologian, started his Taize movement in 1940 to provide a refuge for those fleeing the turmoil of World War II.
He devoted the rest of his life to reconciliation, and the community counts members from some 30 countries.
Begun as a monastic order focused on meditation and prayer, Taize has since developed into an international pilgrimage site for songer and reflection.
Pope Benedict voiced his sadness in an audience at his summer retreat.
"It is a very sad piece of news which touches me all the more in that I received only yesterday a moving letter from him," the pontiff said.
In the letter, Schutz said he was thinking of the pope and those attending the World Youth Days festival in Cologne, Germany.
News of the death provoked consternation among the hundreds of thousands of young Catholics at the festival, which the pope will attend from Thursday.
"The news spread like wildfire in our group," said Marie-Pierre Cockenpot, in charge of a group of 300 young French people at Cologne who often went to Taize.
"Many were crying, some wanted to leave, saying they didn't have the heart to go on with the festival but we told them Brother Roger would have wanted it to continue," she added.
A state prosecutor, Jean-Louis Coste, told a press conference the Romanian woman, whom he identified by her first name Luminita, had apparently attacked Schutz "to attract attention but didn't want to kill him."
He said she had tried unsuccessfully to speak with him beforehand, adding that initial psychiatric evaluation did not suggest she should be committed to a mental institution.
A community brother said she had arrived in Taize two days earlier and that followers had noted signs of "psychological problems."
The president of the French Bishops' Conference, Archbishop of Bordeaux Jean-Pierre Ricard, wrote to the community voicing his grief at the killing of a man "impassioned by unity among Christians and reconciliation."
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin hailed Schutz as "a towering figure of our religious history," while Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the "atrocious and cowardly act."
Sources close to the Taize community said Schutz had been about to give up his office later this year because of advanced age.
His funeral service is to take place next Tuesday, in the church where he was stabbed, and he is to be buried in the cemetery of Taize.
For more information about the Taizé community, go here (http://ipx11645.ipxserver.de/)
Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/francereligiontaize)
Wed Aug 17,12:27 PM ET
TAIZE, France (AFP) - The French-based ecumenical Taize community is trying to take stock of the fatal stabbing of its popular 90-year-old founder, overshadowing a global Catholic youth festival starting in Germany.
Roger Schutz, a popular Christian figure known simply as Brother Roger, was killed late Tuesday in his Reconciliation church in Taize, in eastern France's Burgundy region, during a prayer service.
As a German cleric arrived to take over the group, messages of sadness came from Pope Benedict XVI, French government ministers and other dignitaries.
A 36-year-old Romanian woman believed to be mentally disturbed was in police custody for allegedly plunging a knife into his back three times in front of 2,500 mostly young people attending the service.
Schutz, credited with infusing young people around the world with Christian teachings and religious tolerance, is replaced by his nominated successor Alois Leser, a 51-year-old German Catholic.
Leser told AFP he planned to continue Schutz's work.
"I can smile today but my heart is in pain," he said. "We are grateful for the path Brother Roger opened for us and that we will continue."
He said he had a "heavy heart" returning to Taize. "I came quickly to be here in the heart of the community because the brothers are dispersed around the world but we have need of a home."
At prayers with young followers, he said he gave thanks for all the messages coming in, "and I said that we will trust together in God."
Schutz, a Swiss-born Protestant theologian, started his Taize movement in 1940 to provide a refuge for those fleeing the turmoil of World War II.
He devoted the rest of his life to reconciliation, and the community counts members from some 30 countries.
Begun as a monastic order focused on meditation and prayer, Taize has since developed into an international pilgrimage site for songer and reflection.
Pope Benedict voiced his sadness in an audience at his summer retreat.
"It is a very sad piece of news which touches me all the more in that I received only yesterday a moving letter from him," the pontiff said.
In the letter, Schutz said he was thinking of the pope and those attending the World Youth Days festival in Cologne, Germany.
News of the death provoked consternation among the hundreds of thousands of young Catholics at the festival, which the pope will attend from Thursday.
"The news spread like wildfire in our group," said Marie-Pierre Cockenpot, in charge of a group of 300 young French people at Cologne who often went to Taize.
"Many were crying, some wanted to leave, saying they didn't have the heart to go on with the festival but we told them Brother Roger would have wanted it to continue," she added.
A state prosecutor, Jean-Louis Coste, told a press conference the Romanian woman, whom he identified by her first name Luminita, had apparently attacked Schutz "to attract attention but didn't want to kill him."
He said she had tried unsuccessfully to speak with him beforehand, adding that initial psychiatric evaluation did not suggest she should be committed to a mental institution.
A community brother said she had arrived in Taize two days earlier and that followers had noted signs of "psychological problems."
The president of the French Bishops' Conference, Archbishop of Bordeaux Jean-Pierre Ricard, wrote to the community voicing his grief at the killing of a man "impassioned by unity among Christians and reconciliation."
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin hailed Schutz as "a towering figure of our religious history," while Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the "atrocious and cowardly act."
Sources close to the Taize community said Schutz had been about to give up his office later this year because of advanced age.
His funeral service is to take place next Tuesday, in the church where he was stabbed, and he is to be buried in the cemetery of Taize.
For more information about the Taizé community, go here (http://ipx11645.ipxserver.de/)
Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/francereligiontaize)