c. 2005 Religion News Service

Founder of Taize Ecumenical Community Stabbed to Death

(RNS) Brother Roger, the 90-year-old leader of the Taize community that fostered relations among Christians, was stabbed to death by a woman during a prayer service Tuesday (Aug. 16) at the community he founded in eastern France.

Authorities said a 36-year-old Romanian woman stood up during the service attended by about 2,500 people and stabbed Brother Roger in the throat three times. The community founder died immediately, Reuters reported.

Worshippers overpowered the woman and she was detained, police said.

The World Council of Churches responded with shock and sadness to the death of the ecumenical leader.

“Brother Roger died as he lived, praying at the center of his community,” said Genevieve Jacques, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, writing for General Secretary Samuel Kobia, who was on vacation.

“His witness to the gospel and to ecumenical dialogue has been enormously influential over the past century.”

The leader of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, said Brother Roger’s death was “an indescribable shock,” and called him “one of the best loved Christian leaders of our time.”

Brother Roger, a Swiss Protestant, founded Taize in 1940 in a remote village in the hills of southern Burgundy. Today the community numbers about 100 Catholics and Protestants. In the 1950s, Taize became a place of pilgrimage for young people from all over the world.

“Although he died as a result of a violent attack, his life was one of complete commitment to a peaceful and united world,” said Bishop Joseph Duffy of Clogher, speaking on behalf of the Catholic bishops of Ireland. “This was never more evident than when he was joined daily by thousands of young people of different faiths, themselves searching for that vision.”

The chants the community developed for its worship are widely used by churches of all denominations.

“Short chants, repeated over and over, emphasize the meditative quality of prayer,” Brother Roger wrote. “They express in a few words a basic truth which is quickly grasped by the mind and gradually penetrates into one’s whole being.”

Eight years ago, Brother Roger designated Brother Alois, a German Catholic, to succeed him as the head of the community. On hearing of Brother Roger’s death, Brother Alois immediately returned to Taize from Cologne, Germany, where he had been attending the World Youth Day celebrations.

_ Robert Nowell and Adelle M. Banks

Lawyer Seeks Emergency Counseling Money From Church After Suicides

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) A lawyer for sexual abuse victims has asked a federal bankruptcy court to free up money for emergency counseling after three of his clients committed suicide.

Larry Lynn Craven, 49, was one of 66 claimants trying to reach a settlement with the Archdiocese of Portland, which was the first Catholic diocese in the country to seek bankruptcy protection because of abuse lawsuits.

Craven, who had sought $2 million in damages, had been identified in court records only as John Doe or L.C. before he died July 21.

His attorney, Daniel J. Gatti, said he shot himself. His case was scheduled for mediation Aug. 29. “This isn’t a case about money,” Gatti said. “It’s a case about healing.”

Craven’s suicide is the third among sexual-abuse plaintiffs in recent months. Peter Ryan, 44, of Portland, who received a $1 million settlement for abuse by the late Rev. Maurice Grammond, committed suicide in February. Steven D. Colvin, 43, of Portland, who had accused the Rev. Michael Sprauer of abusing him when he was a teenage inmate of MacLaren School for Boys, killed himself in December.

Gatti’s motion asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris to allow the archdiocese to pay for counseling for any claimants who are at risk for harming themselves or others.

“Time is of the essence,” Gatti wrote in an affidavit accompanying the motion. “My clients are deeply troubled, and the mediation process is not making it any easier on them.”

The archdiocese offered condolences in a statement Monday (Aug. 15) as it began the second of six weeks of settlement talks.

“The archdiocese has no direct information about any of the events described in the motion, nor the cause of those events,” the statement said, “but is very sorry to hear about loss of life under any circumstances.

“The archdiocese has provided counseling in the past for many people, but the bankruptcy has presented obstacles to our past practice. The archdiocese is open to exploring ways of continuing its policy.”

Gatti said the archdiocese, before its July 2004 bankruptcy filing, provided 10 weeks of free counseling to persons with credible claims of sexual abuse _ more if the counselor agreed to it.

_ Steve Woodward

Sirius Decision to Drop Gospel Channel Prompts Complaints

WASHINGTON (RNS) A decision by Sirius Satellite Radio to cancel The Word Network, a station broadcasting African-American religious programming and gospel music, has prompted more than 15,000 listeners to sign letters of protest.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and several Word executives delivered the letters to Jay Clark, vice president of programming for Sirius, at a meeting in which they urged Sirius not to cancel the religious station. They noted that Sirius is preparing to add shock jock Howard Stern to its lineup.

Lewis Gibbs, vice president of operations for The Word Network, said the decision reflects a lack of moral consideration on the part of Sirius.

“Our request is simple: If Sirius can make room for the values Howard Stern represents, we’d also like them to make room for the values we represent,” Gibbs said. “Sirius has a slice of the public airways and therefore has a responsibility to serve the public. We had hoped Sirius would decide to serve the public interest as well as their own economic interests. Clearly, we were wrong.”

The day after the letters of protest were delivered to Sirius, three members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent letters urging Sirius to reconsider its decision.

“We view the availability of family-oriented programming such as The Word Network as consistent with the promotion of the FCC’s public policy objectives,” wrote Reps. Elijah Cummings and Albert Wynn, both Maryland Democrats, in their letter. “The Word Network is truly unique in this respect, as it is the only network providing family value programming specifically oriented toward urban ministries and the African-American communities.”

Patrick Reilly, spokesman for Sirius Satellite Radio, said the decision regarding The Word Network was not unusual.

“We at Sirius are constantly evaluating our programming,” Reilly said. “We had a two-year programming agreement with The Word Network, and that agreement expires in September. We have elected not to renew the agreement.”

_ Hugh S. Moore

Poll: Only One in Six Make Moral Choices Based on the Bible

(RNS) One in six adults make moral decisions based on the content of the Bible, according to a new study conducted by the Barna Group, while about half of adults make their moral choices “on the basis of specific principles or standards they believe in.”

Barna, a Christian research group, conducted the survey of 1,002 adults of all faiths in order to determine the proportion of the population that abides by a “biblical worldview.”

Though the majority of people in America describe themselves as Christians, George Barna, head of the California-based research group, said the data reflect a lack of a biblical worldview, which he describes as a “life perspective on the basis of several questions about religious belief.”

According to the study, “the definition requires someone to believe that absolute moral truth exists; that the source of moral truth is the Bible; that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches; that eternal spiritual salvation cannot be earned; that Jesus lived a sinless life on Earth; that every person has a responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others; that Satan is a living force, not just a symbol of evil; and that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful maker of the universe who still rules that creation today.”

“Most born-again Christians hold a confusing and inherently contradictory set of religious beliefs that go unchecked by the leaders of their faith community,” Barna said. “Born-again Christians” were defined in the survey as people who said they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today.”

Barna also said the survey indicates that Christian leaders should remain focused on spiritual matters rather than more superficial signs of religious effectiveness.

“Our studies consistently show that churches base their sense of success on indicators such as attendance, congregant satisfaction, dollars raised and built-out square footage,” Barna said. “None of those factors relates to the kind of radical shift in thinking and behavior that Jesus Christ died on the cross to facilitate.”

The study was conducted in July with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

_ Hugh S. Moore

Quote of the Day: The Rev. J. Bryan Hehir of the Archdiocese of Boston

(RNS) “Closing a military base is a piece of cake compared to closing a parish. Nobody gets buried in a military base.”

_ The Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, cabinet secretary for social services for Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley of Boston. Hehir was quoted by The Washington Post in a story about sit-ins that have brought reprieves for parishioners who did not want their Catholic churches to close.

KRE/PH END RNS