Catholic World News News Feature

Pope urges Taize community to follow founder's vision December 20, 2005

The Vatican has made public a message from Pope Benedict XVI to members of the Taize community, who will gather in Milan next week for the first meeting of the ecumenical community since the death of its founder, Brother Roger Schultz.

About 50,000 young people are expected to gather in Milan on December 28. They will receive an unfinished letter written by Brother Roger shortly before he was killed, in August. They will also receive a message from the Pope, saying in part: "May the example of the founder of Taize and the tireless testimony of Pope John Paul II in favor of dialogue and peace encourage you to be peacemakers in your turn."

The Pope's message praises the legacy of Brother Roger and encourages the Taize community to continued building "a spirit of brotherhood and peace." That spirit is particularly necessary today, he writes, in a world "made fragile by many situations of tension, and in our developed societies marked by new forms of violence that affect the young in particular."