Frère Roger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

(Redirected from Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche)

Brother Roger of Taizé, 2003

Frère Roger (Brother Roger) (Provence, Switzerland, May 12, 1915 - Taizé, August 16, 2005), baptised Roger Louis Schütz-Marsauche, also known as Prior Roger, was the founder and prior of the Taizé Community, an ecumenical monastic community.

1 Background
2 Ecumenical ideals
3 Death
4 Publications
5 Awards and honours
6 External links

[edit]

Background

Roger was born the ninth and youngest child of Karl Ulrich Schütz, a Protestant pastor from Bachs in the Zürcher Unterland (Zürich Lowlands) in Switzerland, and his wife, Amélie Henriette Schütz-Marsauche, a French Catholic woman from Burgundy.

From 1937 to 1940, Roger studied Reformed theology in Strasbourg and Lausanne.

In 1940, he rode a bicycle from Geneva to Taizé, in France, then occupied by the Germans. He later founded the Taizé Community there.

Brother Roger was awarded the UNESCO prize for peace education in 1988 and wrote many books on prayer and reflection, asking young people to be confident and committed.

The spiritual leader kept a low profile, rarely giving interviews and refusing to permit any "cult" to grow up around himself. He was due to give up his community functions later this year because of his advanced age. Recently, he had suffered from fatigue and often used a wheelchair.

Brother Alois Leser, a 51-year-old German Roman Catholic priest, was chosen by Brother Roger as his heir-apparent eight years ago and was confirmed by the community as Brother Roger's successor. At the time of the prior's death, Brother Alois was attending the World Youth Day celebration in Cologne, Germany.

The Taizé community, which is near Mâcon, about 390 kilometres (240 miles) southeast of Paris, draws tens of thousands of Christian youths from around the world each year for prayer and meditation. It emphasises the need for all Christians to come together in peace, love and reconciliation. Brother Roger, the son of a Swiss protestant pastor, founded the community at Taizé, in the Burgundy region of France, during the Second World War when he was just 25. His motto, if he had one, was: "Love, and express that with your life."

He also wrote books about Christian spirituality and prayer, some together with Mother Teresa with whom he shared a cordial friendship.

[edit]

Ecumenical ideals

Brother Roger, 1991.

All his life, Roger devoted himself to reconciling the different Christian churches. He especially addressed Christian youths. 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 or lying on the floor of an exhibition hall, amid backpacks and a sea of candles. "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." [1]

In 1974, a council was organized in Taizé. Since then, Roger held that the pope was the "universal pastor" of all Christians.

At the funeral of Pope John Paul II, Roger, a Protestant, took the Eucharist from the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. This caused a worldwide stir: some even saw it as a sign of a closer approach between the different Christian denominations. However, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls declared in July 2005 that Roger had been in the queue for Communion by accident. Navarro Valls further stressed that Roger Schutz was against intercommunion, but that he shared the Catholic teachings about the Eucharist (transubstantiation). Some of Br. Roger's writings (e.g. Etonnement d'un amour [2]) suggest that he favoured a more open approach.

[edit]

Death

Brother Roger was stabbed to death during the evening prayer service in Taizé on August 16, 2005 (by Luminița Ruxandra Solcan, a 36-year-old schizophrenic woman from Romania). His throat was cut, causing him to bleed to death within minutes. The assailant was immediately apprehended by members of the congregation and was placed in police custody.

His death, in full view of 2,500 horrified young pilgrims at the Church of the Reconciliation in Taizé, turned a man many already believed to be a saint into a martyr, although there is no clear link between his faith and the crime.

The funeral took place on August 23, 2005. Horst Köhler, President of Germany, and Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior of France, were in attendance. Brother Roger's community and friends attended the liturgy in the vast wooden 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 brothers.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Vatican's council for the unity of Christians, who concelebrated the Mass with four other priests of Taizé, said in a homily, "Yes, the springtime of ecumenism has flowered on the hill of Taizé." Beyond religious divisions, Brother Roger also abhorred the division between rich and poor. "Every form of injustice or neglect made him very sad," Cardinal Kasper said. Br. Roger's successor, Br. Alois prayed for forgiveness: "With Christ on the cross we say to you, Father, forgive her, she does not know what she did."

[edit]

Publications

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 ?

Editions, listed alphabetically, as found in the Library of Congress Catalog shortly after his death:

Afire with love : meditations on peace and unity. ISBN 0824504747
Amour de tout amour : les sources de Taizé. (1990) ISBN 2850401072
Awakened from within : meditations on the Christian life. (1987) ISBN 0385235364
Dynamik des Vorläufigen. (1967) Translation of Dynamique du provisoire
Dynamique du proviso ire. (1965)
En tout la paix du Coeur (1995) ISBN 2259183891
Essential Writings. (2006) ISBN 9781570756399
Étonnement d'un amour : journal. (1979- )
Festival (1973) a translation of Ta fête soit sans fin. ISBN 0816425833
Fleurissent les déserts du coeur : journal, 5e volume, 1977-1979. (1982) ISBN 2850400068
Life from within : prayers. (1990) a Translation of: Aus dem Innern leben. ISBN 0264672143 and ISBN 0664251625
Living today for God. (1962) Originally published under the title Vivre l'Aujourd'hui de dieu.
Lutte et contemplation; journal 1970-1972. (1973)
No greater love : sources of Taizé. (1991) ISBN 0814620299 and ISBN 0264672534
Parable of community : the rule and other basic texts of Taizé. (1980) ISBN 0816423016
Passion d'une attente : journal, 6e volume, 1979-1981. (1985) ISBN 2020089483
Peace of heart in all things : meditations for each day of the year. (1996) ISBN 0941050963
The power of the provisional. (1969) Originally published as Dynamique du provisoire. ISBN 0340025441
Le Règle de Taizé. (1966)
Revelation, a Protestant view; the Dogmatic Constitution on divine revelation, a commentary / by Roger Schutz and Max Thurian. (1968)
The Rule of Taizé in French and in English. (1968) Translation of Le Règle de Taizé ISBN 0816425647
The Rule of Taizé in French and in English. (1967) French title: Le Règle de Taizé
Struggle and contemplation; journal, 1970-2. (1974) Translation of Lutte et contemplation. ISBN 0816421064
Struggle and contemplation : journal 1970-2. (1974) Translation of Lutte et contemplation. ISBN 0281028095
Ta fête soit sans fin. (1971)
Ta fête soit sans fin : journal 1969-1970. (1971)
Unanimité dans le pluralisme. (1966)
Unanimité dans le pluralisme. (1972)
Unanimity in pluralism. (1967)
Unity: man's tomorrow / by Roger Schutz (1962) Translation of L'unité, espérance de vie.
Violence des pacifiques. (1968)
Violent for peace. (1970) Translation of Violence des pacifiques. ISBN 0664249221
Violent for peace (1970) Translation of Violence des pacifiques. ISBN 0232510938
Vivre l'inespéré : journal 1972-1974. (1976)
Taizé: lieu de communion. (1972)
Mary, Mother of Reconciliations / by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Brother Roger of Taizé (1989) ISBN 0809130637
Meditations on the way of the cross / by Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Brother Roger of Taizé (1987) Translation of: Kreuzweg ISBN 0829805850
Seeking the heart of God : reflections on prayer / Mother Teresa and Brother Roger (1993) Translated from the French. ISBN 0060682388