Pope meets new Prior of Taize Community

Brother Matthew

Source: Taize

On Monday 18 March, Pope Francis received Brother Matthew in a private audience for a first meeting since he became prior of the Taizé Community on 2 December last year.

During their exchange, Brother Matthew thanked Pope Francis for his ministry as Bishop of Rome and shared the deep gratitude of many Christians of different Churches for the "Together" gathering of the People of God on 30 September last year, in particular for the final blessing given by the Pope together with some twenty other Church leaders.

The European meetings in Ljubljana, at the end of December 2023, and the one being prepared in Tallinn, Estonia, for the end of December 2024, were also mentioned, as well as the invitation issued by Brother Matthew to become "pilgrims of peace" at this time of great suffering in so many parts of the world.

Before arriving in Rome, Brother Matthew and two other brothers of the community participated in an ecumenical colloquium on the theme 'The Feast of Creation and the Mystery of Creation' held in Assisi. During the colloquium which he spoke on the first panel entitled 'Ecumenical Kairos: fertile soil for the Feast of Creation"'.

Last Wednesday, 13 March, Brother Matthew and the community welcomed Taizé for the day the bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, who were in Geneva for an ecumenical study trip.

As part of the 'pilgrims of peace' initiative, young people, sisters of Saint Andrew and brothers from Taizé completed a 34 km walk from Taizé on Thursday 7 March, to symbolically mark the distance between the cities of Gaza and Rafah, with four stops along the route to pray for those who are suffering from war in various parts of the world.