Frère Roger

Frère Roger Schutz, born the May 12th 1915 with Provence (Vaud, Swiss) and dead the August 16th 2005 with Taizé (Saône-et-Loire, France) is the founder of the Communauté of Taizé.

Biography

1940: a Swiss young person 25 years, whose mother is of French origin, on Burgundy precisely, decides to go to share in France the fate of this occupied country. “Geneva, I left to bicycle for France, seeking a house where to request, where to accommodate and where there would be one day this life of community. ”

It is with Taizé, a small village of Burgundy where the inhabitants accommodate it cordially, which it chooses of living. At the beginning of the war it accommodates Jewish refugees with his Genevieve sister. In 1942 it returns to Switzerland. In 1944 it turns over to Taizé and comes to assistance of the German prisoners of war.

“In my youth, I was astonished to see Christians who, while referring to a God of love, lost such an amount of energy to justify oppositions. And I said myself: to communicate the Christ, is there reality more transparent than a life given, where day after day the reconciliation is achieved in the concrete one? Then I thought that it was essential to create a Communauté with men decided to give all their life and who seek to always reconcile themselves. ”

With the passing of years develops the Communauté of Taizé. Companions unite with Roger brother: the community is composed at present of brothers coming from about thirty nations and which are catholic and of various evangelic origins the community does not accept for itself any gift. The brothers earn their living by their work. Their personal heritages, they give them the most stripped to.

Of Protestant origin, Roger brother achieved a step which does not have a precedent since the Reform: to enter gradually a full “communion” with the faith of the Catholic church without a “conversion” implying a rupture with its origins. In 1980, at the time of a European meeting of young people in Rome, it publicly expressed it in these terms, in the presence of the pope Jean-Paul II in the basilica Saint Pierre: “I found my own identity of Christian by reconciling in myself the faith of my origins with the mystery of the catholic faith, without rupture of communion with whoever. ”

Because of its great age, it planned to leave its functions of prior in the current of the year, according to a source close to the community. Lately, the very great tiredness which it tested brought it to often move in wheel chair. The price UNESCO of education for peace had been given to him in 1988. The International prize Charlemagne had been decreed to him in 1989.

Died with Taizé Tuesday August 16th 2005 shortly after 20:30, it was assassinated by amenable a Rumanian 36 years old. It was put in examination Thursday for assassination and was écrouée, announced the Public prosecutor of Mâcon, Jean-Louis Coste. The young woman, who suffers from one “is delirious of paranoiac type” according to a first psychiatric evaluation, nevertheless was considered to be responsible for her acts. She incurs the Life imprisonment. She was écrouée with the prison of Dijon. The aggression, three stabs in the back, took place during the prayer of the evening, whereas some 2.500 young people were present. Number of them made a halt with Taizé while going to the world Journées youth 2005 to Cologne.

“The woman who attacked it succeeded in being introduced in the middle of the chorus of the Brothers, it advanced towards him, but it was not seen, because one was back, one heard the cry, one was turned over, it was already made”, declared Frère Emile, spokesperson of the community, joint on the telephone by the AFP. “There was a doctor in the assembly and the local doctor came, but it was too late, the wound was too important and it succumbed to 9 p.m.”, he added ( Le Monde ).

Its successor with the head of the community is Frère Aloïs, catholic and of German origin. He was indicated by brother Roger himself a few years ago.

Funeral

The funeral proceeded the August 23rd 2005 in the church of the Reconciliation of Taizé. Y assisted:

Horst Köhler, president of the Germany,
Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister French for the Interior, and in charge of the worships,
the the Community of Taizé,
Pasteur Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the Council of the Protestant Federation of France,
the bishop Lutheran Wolfgang Huber, president of the evangelic Church in Germany,
the archpriest Mikhail Gundyaev, representing orthodoxe Patriarchate of Moscow,
of other personalities,
and more than 12.000 people who could see the course of the ceremony apart fromchurch, thanks to a giant screen.

The coffin, simple, of clear wood, with an icon out of wooden on the top, were carried by the brothers of Taizé. It summer followed by a group of children who live in Taizé with their parents.

The cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the pontifical Council of the Vatican for the unit of the Christians, concélébré the mass with four other priests of Taizé. He read a message of the pope Benoît XVI which gave its apostolic blessing. In its homélie he said “Yes, the spring of the oecumenism flowered on the hill of Taizé, inspired by the presence and the example of Frère Roger”. Frère Aloïs also said “God of kindness, we entrust to your forgiveness Luminita Solcan which, in a morbid act, put an end to the life of our Frère Roger. Father, forgives him, it does not know what it did. ”.

Frère Roger is buried in the cemetery of the village.

Quotations

“One of the pure joys of Gospel is to always advance still and towards a simplicity of the heart which involves with a simplicity of life”.

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