God can only love: this the tile of a biography about Brother Roger, who was assassinated in Taize on the 16^th of August during vespers. God can only love, and Brother Roger has departed to adore him for always, on the same afternoon more than 400,000youth gathered in Cologne to begin the World Youth Day of the two Popes: John Paul II in heaven and Benedict XVI on earth. Heaven speaks.

In some way they were related: John Paul II and the founder of Taize, who was 90 years old last May the 12^th. On the 18^th of May John Paul II would have been 85. At John Paul II’s funeral Brother Roger received communion from Cardinal Ratzinger. In some way the Pope of WYD and the founder of the "Council of Youth" are related. In the 70’s Taize was transformed into a point of attraction for thousands of youth from all of the world. Even now 200,000 youths gather annually to pray, meditate, and to meet and converse about the future of Christianity and of the world. Since 1979 Brother Roger has organized international encounters which he called "Ways of Hope", in addition to the "encounters for the European youth" that are held in the big cities.

Encounter in the Council

Pope John Paul II received Brother Roger every year in a private audience. The last one was very close to his funeral, with his profound symbolic gesture. The friendship between the two began in 1962, during Vatican Council II. Karol Wojtyla, was the Archbishop of Krakow at that time, and Brother Roger would pray before the morning session in a chapel in the basilica of Saint Peter and that is where they mutually met. The Brother invited Monsignor Wojtyla to have breakfast at his house in Rome.

The Archbishop of Krakow went to Taize in 1964 and 1968. Later Brother Roger, who was born in Switzerland, was invited several times to speak at the annual pilgrimage of the miners. Cardinal Wojtyla, who led the pilgrimage, invited the Brother to spend the night in the Episcopal See of Krakow. After he was elected Pole in 1978, he received Brother Roger annually – until last year –in a private audience. When he was shot he received him at the hospital.

Brother Roger was born – as Roger Schutz-Marsauche – on the 12th of May of 1915 in Provence, Switzerland. His father was a reformed Swiss pastor. From 1937 until 1940 he studied theology in Lucerne and Strasburg. In 1940 he moved to France. In 1949 he , along with other Brothers, founded the Taize Community. The first Brothers had evangelical roots, later Catholics also entered. Today the Community has about 100 Brothers from 25 countries. More than a third of them are Catholic.

A shadow over WYD.. or perhaps it’s a light?

"It is with great consternation that we learned about the assassination of Brother Roger, founder of the Taize community. All the participants of WYD pray for this great personality. We specially embrace the Taize community, above all the Brothers who had prepared the spiritual centers for WYD in the cathedral of Bonn and in the Church of Saint Ines in Cologne. We offer them our deepest condolences. Brother Roger has always been profoundly attached to the Catholic Church. Just a short while ago, we were all very grateful for his participation at the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Now it is he who has departed to meet the Heavenly Father. There is great sorrow. The hope in the resurrection overcomes it: wrote Monsignor Dr. Heiner Kock. The media has said that a shadow has fallen over WYD.

Is it really a shadow? Couldn’t it be a light that surges from a life that is offered on the first day of the twentieth WYD?