Roger Schutz (12 May 1915 – 16 August 2005), popularly known as Brother Roger (French: Frère Roger), was a SwissChristian leader and monasticbrother. In 1940 Schutz founded the Taizé Community, an ecumenical monastic community in Burgundy, France, serving as its first prior until his murder in 2005.[1] Towards the end of his life, the Taizé Community was attracting international attention, welcoming thousands of young pilgrims every week, which it has continued to do after his death.[2]
In 1940, at the start of World War II, Schutz-Marsauche felt called to serve those suffering from the conflict, as his maternal grandmother had done during World War I. He rode a bicycle from Geneva to Taizé, a small town near Mâcon, about 390 kilometres (240 mi) southeast of Paris. The town was then located within unoccupied France, just beyond the line of demarcation from the zone occupied by German troops. He bought an empty house, where for two years he and his sister, Genevieve, hid refugees, both Christian and Jewish, before being forced to leave Taizé, after being tipped off that the Gestapo had become aware of their activities. In 1944, he returned to Taizé to found the Community, initially a small quasi-monastic community of men living together in poverty and obedience, open to all Christians.[3]
Since the late 1950s, many thousands of young adults from many countries have found their way to Taizé to take part in weekly meetings of prayer and reflection. In addition, Taizé brothers make visits and lead meetings, large and small, in Africa, North and South America, Asia, and in Europe, as part of a “pilgrimage of trust on earth”.
The spiritual leader always kept a low profile, rarely giving interviews and refusing to permit any "cult" to grow up around himself. Prior to his death, Brother Roger was due to give up his community functions because of his advanced age and ill-health which had seen him suffer from fatigue and often use a wheelchair.[citation needed]
Brother Roger was a prized author and wrote many books on prayer and reflection, asking young people to be confident in God and committed to their local church community and to humanity. He also wrote books about Christian spirituality and prayer, some together with Mother Teresa with whom he shared a cordial friendship.[4]
Brother Roger was stabbed to death during the evening prayer service in Taizé on August 16, 2005, by a young Romanian woman named Luminița Ruxandra Solcan who was later deemed mentally ill[5] and was stabbed as well in 2011.[6] He was stabbed several times and, though one of the brothers carried him from the church, he died shortly afterward. The assailant was immediately apprehended by members of the congregation and was placed in police custody.
The funeral took place on 23 August 2005. Horst Köhler, the President of Germany, and Nicolas Sarkozy, at that time Minister of the Interior of France, were in attendance. Brother Roger's community and friends attended the liturgy in the vast monastery church at Taizé, while thousands more followed it on a huge screen in fields outside the church. Brother Roger's simple wooden coffin, a wooden icon lying upon it, was carried into the church by members of the community. In a highly unusual move, the funeral was presided over by a Catholiccardinal, Walter Kasper, the president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who celebrated the Mass with four priest-brothers of Taizé concelebrating. In his homily he said, "Yes, the springtime of ecumenism has flowered on the hill of Taizé."[7] In reference to Brother Roger's concern for social justice, Cardinal Kasper said "Every form of injustice or neglect made him very sad."[7] Brother Roger's successor, Brother Alois Löser, prayed for forgiveness: "With Christ on the cross we say to you, Father, forgive her, she does not know what she did."[7]
Brother Roger with Catholic and Protestant clergy, leaving an ecumenical service in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, c. 1975.
All his life, Roger devoted himself to reconciling the different Christian denominations. He especially addressed Christian youth. Part of his appeal may have been his dislike of formal preaching, while encouraging a spiritual quest as a common endeavor. During a Taizé gathering in Paris in 1995, he spoke to more than 100,000 young people who were sitting on the floor of an exhibition hall. "We have come here to search", he said, "or to go on searching through silence and prayer, to get in touch with our inner life. Christ always said, 'Do not worry, give yourself'."[8]
According to Cardinal Walter Kasper, this was accomplished as though there was a tacit understanding between Brother Roger and the Catholic Church "crossing certain confessional" and canonical barriers through what Brother Roger called a gradual enrichment of his faith with the foundations of the Catholic Church including "the ministry of unity exercised by the bishop of Rome."[9] Brother Roger thus appeared to have undertaken a step without precedent since the Protestant Reformation: entering progressively into full communion with the faith of the Catholic Church possibly without a formal "conversion" that would imply a break with his origins.[citation needed]
I have found my own identity as a Christian by reconciling within myself the faith of my origins with the mystery of the Catholic faith, without breaking fellowship with anyone.[9]
Posthumous claims
It was reported in the early 2000s that Brother Roger had in fact converted to Catholicism in 1972, when he received his First Communion from the local ordinary, the bishop of Autun. The journalist reporting claimed to have confirmed this with the Vatican, explaining his unfettered reception of Communion there from the sitting Pope on two different occasions. He reportedly kept his conversion a secret for the sake of the ecumenical mission of Taizé.[10]
Brother Rogers' successor at Taizé, Brother Alois, confirmed that the sacrament occurred but denied that there was a formal conversion, stating that he merely affirmed the Creed.[11] That said, this is the historic mode of conversion, modern requirements notwithstanding.
In 1998, Brother Roger had designated Brother Alois, a German Catholic who had originally come to Taizé as a youth and became one of the brothers, as his successor. This was confirmed by the community and in January 2005, it was announced that Alois would soon be taking Roger's place as Prior of Taizé, but this had not yet occurred at the time of Roger's death, when Alois was attending the World Youth Day 2005 celebration in Cologne, Germany. He was installed as prior shortly thereafter.
Publications
1944, Introduction a la Vie Communautaire
1953, La Regle de Taizé
1958, Vivre l’Aujourd’hui de Dieu / Living Today for God
1962, L'unité, espérance de vie / Unity, Life's Hope
1965, Dynamique du provisoire / The Power of the Provisional
1968, Violence des pacifiques / Violent for Peace
1971, Ta fête soit sans fin / Festival Without End, diary February 1969 – May 1970
1973, Lutte et contemplation / Struggle and Contemplation, diary May 1970 – April 1972
1976, Vivre l’inespéré / A Life We Never Dared Hope For, diary May 1972 – September 1974
1979, Etonnement d’un amour / The Wonder of a Love, diary September 1974 – December 1976
1980, Les Sources de Taizé / The Sources of Taizé
1982, Fleurissent tes déserts / And Your Deserts Shall Flower
1985, Passion d’une attente / A Heart that Trusts
1988, Son amour est un feu / His Love Is a Fire
1989, Marie, Mère des Réconciliations / Mary, Mother of Reconciliations (written together with Mother Teresa)
1992, La prière, fraîcheur d’une source / Prayer: Seeking the Heart of God (written together with Mother Teresa)
1995, En tout la paix du cœur / Peace of Heart in All Things
2001, Dieu ne peut qu’aimer / God Is Love Alone
2005, Pressens-tu un bonheur ? / Do You Expect happiness?
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