Terrible sadness and remorse should weigh upon the Christian world tonight.
Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the ecumenical monastic community Taize and inspiration for the many groups rooted in his basic, gospel spirituality, was a victim of the mindless violence that we have grown so insensitive to.
He was 90 years old. He was praying vespers in the Chapel of Reconciliation with his community. A deranged woman stabbed him from behind. He died almost instantly.
We kill what is good. It is that simple.
We ridicule what is holy. We exalt what is trivial. We scorn what is true. We revel in what is senseless. We excuse what is shameful. We strike out at what reproaches us.
We do not want peace or understanding or solidarity or any other of those empty wishes that roll so glibly off the lips of everyone from Miss Universe to the General Director of the UN.
We should be sickened by what that demented woman did last night, because she did it for us and in our place.
