Taize founder has throat slit during prayer service

Elaine Ganley, Paris

Yesterday, the authorities said a Romanian woman had slipped into a choir of singing monks during an evening prayer service and fatally slit the throat of Brother Roger.

The slaying on Tuesday 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," said Brother Emile, who witnessed the killing. "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 symbolised dialogue across the Christian world poured in to the tranquil Taize Community 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 Anglican Church, 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 harboured 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.

Some 2,500 people most of them young people were worshipping in the church when the woman surged forward and stabbed Brother Roger.

He was among a group of 80 brothers who form the choir, positioned in a rectangle in the centre of the church. The attack occurred some five minutes after the service got started, said Brother Emile.

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.

"We asked her not to stay," he said in a telephone interview. She returned about two days ago, bypassing the reception area.

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.