Br Matthew of Taizé

On 29 December 2012, brothers of our Taizé Community were gathered for prayer in St Peter’s Square with 45,000 young people, during our European Meeting, which was being held in Rome, together with Pope Benedict XVI. Little did we know that this would be one of his last major public appearances before he announced his resignation on 11 February 2013.

As the cardinals gathered for the conclave to elect the new Pope, I was travelling for the community in Russia. On 13 March, I was staying with a Catholic priest in Nizhny Novgorod, where I was visiting Orthodox friends. The first reading for the Eucharist that morning came from Isaiah 48.9-15 and after the priest said to me “We have heard God’s promise to comfort his people. Today, they will elect the new Pope.”

When I came back in the evening, the day had produced only black smoke, but then as we ate supper, news came that white smoke had emerged from the Sistine Chapel chimney. So, we rushed to Caritas where there was a television and on the first channel, the country’s president was speaking, but he promptly disappeared and St Peter’s Basilica was on the screen.

When Cardinal Tauran announced that Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been chosen, my Argentine priest friend fell on the floor in astonishment. It was his own bishop who had blessed him before he left for his mission! He said to me: “You are Anglican, I am Catholic, we are in an Orthodox country. Is it a sign that this new pontificate will be ecumenical?” Looking back, that question proved prophetic. As Pope Francis asked us to pray for him, these words stayed in my heart.

The following morning, the national TV was at the priest’s door to interview him, such was the interest in this new Pope from the other side of the world. That evening, we shared a bottle of Malbec wine!

My predecessor as Prior in Taizé, Brother Alois, attended Pope Francis’ inauguration and was subsequently able to meet him in yearly private audiences. We were surprised to learn that he knew Taizé well, without ever having had a direct contact, through the writings of our founder, Brother Roger, and through young Argentinians who had spent time as volunteers with our community over the years.

We were very much influenced by the encyclicals Laudato si’ and Fratelli tutti, which responded to the signs of the times in a manner that was understandable for many, Catholic or not. The exhortation Evangelii Gaudium marked a new stage in communicating faith today. All helped in our ministry with young people in Taizé, for they gave voice to many of the aspirations expressed by young people.

Brother Alois was invited to take part in the different Synods that were held during Pope Francis’ pontificate. The Synod on Youth comes particularly to mind. But it was with the unfolding of the Synod on Synodality that I became more involved and was able to meet Pope Francis on several occasions.

At the initial opening of the Synod preparations, Brother Alois told how Pope Francis encourages us to dream and shared his dream of a gathering of the people of God where young people would lead a prayer for the Synod. When he next met Pope Francis, he repeated this dream and the Pope said it was good. He should speak with Cardinal Grech at the Secretariat for the Synod and Cardinal Koch at the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

And so it was that our community found itself launched on the synodal journey in preparing what would become the ecumenical prayer vigil Together – Gathering of the People of God. Brother Alois asked me and another brother to coordinate the preparations of this vigil. We invited different communities, youth movements and inter-Church organisations from across the Christian world to come to Taizé for an initial meeting. There was a question about the date, but quickly came the news from the Secretariat for the Synod that it should be held at what was to become the beginning of the Synod on Synodality before the Synod participants left for their three days of retreat. And from the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the promise that leaders of all the different Churches would be invited to take part.

My participation in the continental stage of the Synod in Prague marked me immensely. For the first time, I took part in the “Conversation in the Spirit”. Sitting in a small group – which I had been asked to moderate – with a cardinal, an archbishop, two priests, two sisters and three lay people, and seeing how we were listening to each other and trying to discern what the Holy Spirit was saying to us, I thought to myself: “This is the Church and the way to journey together”. I will be forever indebted to Pope Francis’ intuition in initiating this Synod.

On 15 January 2023, after the Angelus – I was travelling to Rome and we watched from the train – Pope Francis announced officially the ecumenical prayer vigil for 30 September of that year. He said that the path to Christian unity and the Church’s synodal conversion are linked and explained, “we will entrust to God the work of the 16^th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops”. He also added that there would be a programme that weekend for young people organised by Taizé.

Pope Francis finished by saying: “As of now, I invite brothers and sisters of all Christian denominations to participate in this gathering of the People of God”. Was this the first time that a Pope had asked Christians of all Churches to pray for something happening within the Catholic Church?

Our third preparation meeting was held in Rome, in March 2023, and Pope Francis received the whole team. He was very relaxed and told us of his early ecumenical experiences. When he was a scout, his priest told him and his friends to go and burn the Protestant scouts’ tents! But he remembered walking with his mother and asking if the two women who had just passed them were sisters. She answered that no, they were Protestants, but that they were very kind. It turned out that they were Salvation Army Officers.

We understood better the ecumenical journey Pope Francis had been on. In Argentina, his ministry brought him into contact with pastors, priests and bishops from different denominations, but the link he underlined as Pope between the Church’s synodal conversion and the journey towards Christian unity, is perhaps what marked me most and confirmed in large part the vocation of our community, while at the same time opening new paths before us.

The Together prayer vigil took a lot of preparation, but I feel an infinite gratitude towards Pope Francis for his unflinching support. Over twenty different heads of Churches were present, including the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as Lutheran, Reformed, Pentecostal, Methodist and Eastern Orthodox leaders. Before the vigil, young people gave presentations on the gifts of Synodality, unity, other people and the Creation. But the image of the different leaders “cum Petro” was very striking, giving a common blessing and marking a significant step on the path towards unity.

One of our close collaborators in the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity said that the Together vigil would be the ecumenical event of Pope Francis’ pontificate. As I remember the words of the Argentine priest who welcomed me back in 2013, I think he was probably right.

[Original in English]