Saturday, August 20, 2005

The Murder of Brother Roger

I should have reported this earlier. But, I got busy with other things. The Associated Press reported:

PARIS -- A Romanian woman suspected of killing the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical Christian community was placed under formal investigation, a step short of being charged, prosecutor Jean-Louis Coste said Thursday.
...
Witnesses allege that the woman slipped into a choir of singing monks during an evening prayer service at the church and fatally slit Brother Roger's throat.
...
The woman had bought the knife the previous day, he said. But she "has not for now admitted to dealing the fatal blow," Coste added.

"She has maintained her initial explanation: 'I simply wanted to attract his attention and if there was such a serious blow, it's not me,'" the prosecutor quoted the suspect as saying.

A preliminary psychiatric exam concluded she suffered paranoiac delusions, Coste said.

Read more...

Attract his attention by slitting his throat? How cruel is that?

Brother Roger is the founder of Taize' Ecumenical Community. Here's a little bit about the community:

Taizé, in the south of Burgundy, France, is the home of an international, ecumenical community, founded there in 1940 by Brother Roger. The brothers are committed for their whole life to material and spiritual sharing, to celibacy, and to a great simplicity of life. Today, the community is made up of over a hundred brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, from more than twenty-five nations.

Read more...

This wasn't a good week for the Catholic church.


UPDATE 08/22/2005
Well, I guess the woman was really crazy. The Belfast Telegraph reported:

A Romanian woman accused of murdering the founder of a celebrated Christian community suffered from paranoid delusions and had been turned away by several convents.

Romanian officials and acquaintances of Luminita Solcan, 36, said she was a highly intelligent woman who had plunged into paranoia and religious mania after the death of her father seven years ago.
...
In recent years, according to Romanian officials, Ms Solcan has made several attempts to join a convent, first in Romania, then in other countries. "We knew that she was under psychiatric surveillance and we could not accept her," said Fr Cornel Cadar, spokesman for the diocese of Iasi, Ms Solcan's home town. After being turned away by convents in France, Egypt and Switzerland, she approached members of the Taizé community.

Read more...

Why do they let psycho people roam the streets?
 

No comments: