FRANCE: Mourners, numbering in their thousands, attended the funeral yesterday of the founder of the ecumenical Taizé community.
Brother Roger, a Lutheran monk aged 90, was slain last week during a prayer service in the Burgundy village where he had lived since 1940. Religious and political dignitaries joined the faithful paying their last respects to Brother Roger in the Church of the Reconciliation, where he was stabbed to death on August 16th.
Brother Roger, known worldwide for his work to develop Christian dialogue and unity, was buried in the local cemetery.
Several hundred people returning from the World Youth Day Festival in Cologne, Germany, hummed meditative chants in the rain in front of the church before the ceremony.
Police are still holding a 36-year-old Romanian woman who, witnesses said, rushed from the congregation of some 2,500 attending a prayer service at the community's church a week ago, and plunged a knife into Brother Roger's throat. - (AP)