Washington D.C., Aug 18, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops joined Pope Benedict XVI and much of the Christian community in expressing shock and sorrow at the surprise killing of Brother Roger Schutz, founder of France’s ecumenical Taizé community on Tuesday.
In a letter to Brother Aloïs, Brother Roger’s successor, Spokane Washington’s Bishop Skylstad expressed “the great sadness that we experienced on receiving the horrific news that Brother Roger Schutz was killed during Evening Prayer on August 15, 2005, in the monastery’s Church of the Reconciliation.”
He noted that “When he visited Taizé in 1986, Pope John Paul II recalled that Pope John XXIII referred to Taizé as ‘that little springtime.’”
“It is our prayer”, he said, “that the community of Taizé, inspired by the vision of its founder Br. Roger, grounded as it was in Christian charity and prayer, continue to be “that little springtime” which, though small, has already brought hopes and has established a deep longing for reconciliation and unity of all disciples of Christ.”