Tributes mark 70 years of Taizé spiritual community
By Stephen Brown
GENEVA (ENI)
— World Christian leaders paid tribute to the ecumenical community
of Taizé in eastern France, which marked its foundation in 1940
by Brother Roger Schutz, who died in 2005.
In a message
in advance of the Aug. 14 commemoration to Brother Alois, who now heads
the community, Pope Benedict XVI described Schutz as a “pioneer
in the difficult paths toward unity among the disciples of Christ.”
“Seventy
years ago, he began a community that continues to see thousands of young
adults, searching for meaning in their lives, come to it from around
the world, welcoming them in prayer and allowing them to experience
a personal relationship with God,” Pope Benedict said.
Schutz, then
aged 90, died after being attacked with a knife by a woman said by police
to be mentally disturbed during evening prayers on Aug. 6, 2005 at Taizé,
near Macon in Burgundy.
In the early
years of the Second World War, Schutz, a Swiss Protestant, had arrived
in the village of Taizé on Aug. 20, 1940 with the idea of founding
an ecumenical monastic community.
“With
him and the brothers who shared his vision and his tension, Taizé
has become a true centre, a focal point and a place of gathering; a
place of deepening in prayer, of listening and humility,” said
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I, a spiritual leader in eastern Orthodoxy.
From the 1960s
onward, thousands of young people, initially from Europe and then from
further afield, made their way to Taizé to experience its ecumenical
spirituality.
The general
secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, described
the community “as a model for attending to the spiritual and physical
needs of the whole People of God and in particular the needs of young
people.”
After Schutz’s
death, Brother Alois, a German Catholic, became prior of the community.
“Today
at Taizé a hundred brothers, Catholics and Protestants, live
together. And the community is often visited by young believers from
the Orthodox churches,” stated Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian
Orthodox Church.
“The thousands
of young people who visit Taizé and take part in the meetings
organized each year by the community in various European countries show
convincingly that the Gospel message of God‚s love can still find
a living echo in people's hearts today,” he said.
The Archbishop
of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion,
described Schutz as, “one of the few figures who truly change
the climate of a religious culture, not by the exercise either of force
or of cheap popularity, but by a lifelong practice of Christ-like authority.”
During his life,
Schutz also became close to the Roman Catholic Church.
Shortly before his death, Schutz attended the funeral of Pope John Paul
II in Rome, where he received the Catholic eucharist from the hands
of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become Pope Benedict XVI.
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