Cleric in France Stabbed Before Congregation

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The New York Sun

PARIS – A Romanian woman slipped into a choir of singing monks during an evening prayer service and fatally slit the throat of the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical Christian community in the presence of 2,500 horrified pilgrims in Burgundy, authorities said yesterday.


The slaying Tuesday of Brother Roger in the Church of Reconciliation drew reactions of shock and grief from the pope, the leader of the Anglican Church, and worshippers around the world.


“It happened very fast. There were some screams. We turned around. He was wounded,” Brother Emile, who witnessed the killing, said. “We carried him out of the church so people didn’t see the terrible part. … She slit his throat.”


Brother Roger was stabbed at least twice in the neck. Bleeding profusely, he died 15 minutes later in the community house, Brother Emile said.


Tributes to the silver-haired cleric who symbolized dialogue across the Christian world poured in yesterday to the tranquil Taize community, snuggled in a Burgundy village north of Lyon.


Pope Benedict XVI, who had received a letter from Brother Roger on Tuesday – the day of the killing – deplored the “very sad and terrifying news.” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Church of England, called it “an indescribable shock.”


Brother Roger, whose surname was Schutz, was born of a Swiss Protestant father and a French Catholic mother. He moved to Taize in 1940 with plans to found a monastery.


He harbored Jewish refugees during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, then built the ecumenical Taize community with a mission to reconcile all denominations of Christians and promote dialogue and peace.


The 36-year-old intruder, who was not identified by name, had visited Taize for a week in June and was considered psychologically fragile. Brother Emile said they had learned from colleagues that she was “a very sick woman in Romania” who screamed in churches.


On Tuesday night, she jumped a small, symbolic hedge separating the choir from the congregation to join the monks. Brother Emile said brothers thought she might be the mother of one of the children. The attacker offered no resistance when she was grabbed.


The prosecutor in nearby Macon, Jean-Louis Coste, said the suspect had bought the knife the day before and her intentions were clear.


Brother Roger was the second recipient of the $1 million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1974, a year after Mother Teresa was given the honor.


“When the Nazis occupied France during World War II, Brother Roger, founder and prior [director] of the Taiz Community in France, harbored Jewish refugees,” the Templeton citation said. “It was typical of Brother Roger’s long history of helping the less fortunate.”


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