FRANCE: French psychiatrists yesterday continued questioning a 36-year-old Romanian woman who stabbed to death one of the world's leading Christian ecumenists in front of 2,500 worshippers on Tuesday night. Lara Marlowe in Paris
Brother Roger Schutz, the founder of the Taizé community in Burgundy, was 90 years old. His killer's first name is Luminita, the deputy prosecutor of Macon, Nicolas Hennebelle, said in a telephone interview. French law does not allow her family name to be released.
Luminita was apprehended immediately. "She was coherent. She told us her identity and her age, and said she arrived in Taizé two days earlier," Mr Hennebelle said.
"She said she bought the Laguiole steak knife she used to stab Brother Roger in the village of Cluny a few days ago. She said she only wanted to talk to him, not kill him. She had visited Taizé before, for several days in June."
If psychiatrists conclude that Luminita was responsible for her act, she will stand trial for the murder of Brother Roger and could be sentenced to life in prison.
Brother Roger led simple, non-denominational worship services at Taizé twice daily. Hundreds of brothers in white cassocks prayed in the front of the church, and there was always a crowd of young people behind them. "The woman who attacked him slipped into the middle of the choir of brothers and walked towards him," Fr Emile, the spokesman for the community said. "We heard a scream, but it was already done." Brother Roger died 15 minutes later.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Brother Roger "will remain in our memories as a major figure of our religious history". Brother Aloysius, a German Catholic chosen by Brother Roger eight years ago to succeed him, assumed his functions yesterday. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Brother Aloysius often travelled to east bloc countries, where the community worked to keep Christianity alive under communist rule.
Brother Roger, the son of a Swiss Protestant pastor and a French Protestant woman, was fascinated by Catholic liturgy in childhood. When he went away to school at the age of 13, his parents allowed him to live with a Catholic woman, with whom he often discussed religion.
Brother Roger studied theology at the University of Lausanne, where he became president of the Association of Christian Students. He first moved to Taizé during the second World War, in 1940. He sheltered Jews, political refugees and members of the resistance, but had to flee to Geneva when he was denounced to the Gestapo.
Brother Roger returned to Taizé in 1944 and with a handful of "brothers" took monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Today the community counts 90 members from 20 countries and several branches of Christianity.
Henri Tincq, Le Monde's religious affairs correspondent, who knew Brother Roger well, said: "He remained a Protestant pastor his whole life, the prior of a community with an ecumenical vocation, which also welcomed Catholics and Anglicans. He had ties to all the Protestant organisations and churches, and to Pope John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI."
John XXIII, to whom Brother Roger was particularly close, called Taizé "this little springtime". When he visited the community in 1986, John Paul II said it was "like walking near a spring".
Brother Roger was seated in the front row at John Paul II's funeral Mass last April. "Cardinal Ratzinger [ now Benedict XVI] celebrated Mass. He went towards Brother Roger and gave him Communion," Mr Tincq recalls. "I asked why a Protestant pastor had received Communion from the hands of Cardinal Ratzinger, who is very rigid in doctrinal matters, and opposes shared Communion. I was told it was an exception, authorised by the cardinal."
The annual "youth synods", which Brother Roger started in the late 1960s, were precursors of the World Youth Day held in Cologne this week.
Brother Roger worked his whole life to unite Christianity. "In his prayers, in his writing, he deplored the conflict in Northern Ireland, which was contrary to everything he stood for," Mr Tincq said.
Pope Benedict led world leaders and ordinary Christians in expressing shock at the murder. The Pope, during his weekly general audience at his summer residence south of Rome, called the killing "terrifying news".
President Jacques Chirac called the death tragic. "For us, and especially for the young, he will remain one of the most remarkable servants of the values of respect and tolerance which are the foundation of human communities," he said.