Brother Alois of Taizé was received in a private audience by Pope Benedict XVI last weekend. This was Brother Alois’ seventh private audience since he became Prior of Taizé in 2005. His predecessor, Brother Roger went to Rome every year to meet Popes John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II.
Brother Alois and the Pope spoke together in German about the Taizé European Young Adults Meeting, held in Berlin last December, and of the theme of new solidarity announced at that time.
It will be explored with the young people until 2015 when a gathering for a new solidarity will take place and celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Taizé community and the 100th anniversary of Brother Roger’s birth.
In that four-page letter, Towards a New Solidarity, Brother Alois writes, “World peace begins in our hearts. To initiate solidarity, we need to go towards others, sometimes with empty hands, listening, trying to understand the man or woman who does not think like us ... and already a deadlocked situation can be transformed.”
Speaking to the Pope, Brother Alois mentioned the next three stages of the Taizé, “pilgrimage of trust,” viz. the African Young Adults Meeting this coming November in Rwanda; the European Meeting in Rome at the end of December during which the Pope will welcome the young people for a prayer in Saint Peter’s Basilica, and; the Taizé visit to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in January 2013.
At the end of the audience, Brother Alois gave the Pope his letter Towards a New Solidarity and a copy of Ecrits Fondateurs by Brother Roger, the first in a series of publications that will make available again the books of the founder of the community.
While Brother Alois was in Rome, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Primate of the Anglican Communion, was visiting Pope Benedict XVI.
Thanks to this timing, on Saturday March 10, the Archbishop was welcomed at the Taizé brothers’ apartment for mid-day prayer and the noon meal.
Later in the Church of San Gregorio Magno, Brother Alois took part in vespers that brought together in common prayer the Pope and the Anglican archbishop.
The Archbishop of Canterbury visited Taizé in 2009.
On Monday June 11, Brother Alois will speak at the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. He will give a catechesis on communion and baptism on that day, which has an ecumenical theme.
Other speakers on that day include Dr Maria Voce, Focolare, and at the Liturgy of Word and Water, Archbishop Michael Jackson, Anglican Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough will preside and Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop of Volokolamsk, Russia will give the sermon.
This International Eucharistic Congress is unique in its more extensive involvement of Christians of other traditions in many elements of it.