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Brother Schutz Did Not Convert
from Protestantism


Malicious Advertisement

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TIA,

You are the pits! Shame on you, to take pictures out of context for the malicious advertising of your agenda.

An example of your blatant lying: Brother Schultz of Taizé is a convert to Catholicism, and was no longer a Protestant at the time he received communion in your picture [click here].

You disgust me.

     L.B.
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Soft Traditionalism
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Dear TIA,

I just read the article on "Brother Roger" in The Remnant and his so called "Conversion" .... Why are they giving this any positive press?

I am sad about it. Do you think that the Traditional movement is going REALLY SOFT? I'm feeling there is something seriously wrong these days.... what is going on? It scares me!

     In Jesus and Mary

     K.H.
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Please, Enlighten Me?
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To the Editor,

I am a regular reader of your website and I think it’s excellent. I want you to know that I also follow it for my personal orientation since I think it is the most balanced of the traditionalist websites. We are tired of the self-excommunications and infighting so common among traditionalists and also conservatives. These groups are tearing into each other to the great advantage of our common enemy. Your position of resisting the bad orientation of the religious authorities while remaining inside the visible Catholic Church is, for me, the only reasonable thing to do in these confused times we are living in. I commend you for that.

The purpose of this letter is to ask your opinion on the apology that a certain traditionalist newspaper issued for having criticized Pope Benedict XVI giving Communion to Brother Roger Schutz of Taizé. According to this organ, Brother Schutz had converted, and therefore, his receiving the Eucharist would be all right.

I read the article and the supposed evidence presented by Yves Chiron. Wasn’t he wrong when he affirmed that Schutz converted? Would you be kind enough to enlighten me as to what really happened?

     Thank you,

     In Christ Jesus,

     E.J.

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The Editor responds:

Unfortunately, I cannot begin this answer by greeting Mrs. L.B. as I would like to do, because I could not find any positive point to praise in her short and abrasive e-mail. I simply acknowledge with sympathy the time she took to visit our website and write us her e-mail.

I can thank Mrs. K.H. and Mr. E.J., however, for their confidence and kind words. They are an encouragement for the TIA staff.

I cordially respond to your questions:

Schutz Did Not Convert

1. Regarding the supposed evidence of the conversion of brother Schutz advanced by Mr. Yves Chiron, this was denied straightforwardly by Schutz’ successor as superior of Taizé, brother Aloïs. In an interview with the French Catholic newspaper La Croix, this Protestant minister affirmed precisely the opposite of Mr. Chiron. I translate his words:
Question (La Croix): “Did Brother Roger formally convert to Catholicism as the historian Yves Chiron just affirmed?

Answer (Brother Aloïs): “No, Brother Roger did not ever formally ‘convert’ to Catholicism. If he would have done so, he would have stated it because he never hid anything about his life. Either in his books, writings, or journal, he set forth everything that he discovered and lived” (La Croix, online, September 5, 2006 – for full text click here).
On September 6, a communiqué in English by the Taizé Community was issued addressing other points of Chiron’s argument:
“A document of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity in Rome is used to support the thesis of a ‘conversion’ undertaken by Brother Roger, although the text says nothing of the kind. As for the Bishop Emeritus of Autun, Msgr. Raymond Seguy, he has already qualified his words. Rejecting the term ‘conversion,’ he declared to the Agence France Press: ‘I did not say that Brother Schutz abjured Protestantism, but he showed that he subscribed fully to the Catholic faith’” (Taizé website – click here for full text).
The communiqué gives the following reason for the strange affirmation of Bishop Seguy:
“From a Protestant background, Brother Roger undertook a step that was without precedent since the Reformation: entering progressively into a full communion with the faith of the Catholic Church without a ‘conversion’ that would imply a break with his origins” (ibid).
Then the strong final word comes:
“Whoever speaks of ‘conversion’ in this respect has not grasped the originality of Brother Roger’s search” (ibid).
So, there is no conversion. Chiron missed the target, as did those who relied on his conclusions.

Theological Ramblings Behind this Case

2. How can it be understood that Schutz “fully subscribed to the Catholic faith” without a conversion?

The explanation should not be sought in Catholic doctrine, but in the Progressivist doctrine of Vatican II. Indeed, what directs ecumenical and inter-religious activity in these post-Vatican II decades is the false notion that religions are set in concentric circles. The center of those circles would be the Catholic Church; the next and larger circle would be the “Church of Christ,” which would also encompass Protestant and Schismatics; the third ever broadening circle would be the “Church of God,” which would encompass those already described plus all those who believe in one God: Jews and Muslins; the fourth enlargement is the “Messianic People,” which encompasses all those who believe in any superior power that would have created the universe, such as Buddhists, Hinduists, Animists, and Masons.

The only ones who would remain outside of these concentric circles are materialists such as Communists and Agnostics, but Progressivism has managed to find points of affinity even with them. For example, they found that “the future” which Communists believe in was also a transcendental value that could correspond to the Catholic belief in the second coming of Our Lord.

This is the Progressivist theory of concentric “churches” according to which God would distribute His grace more intensely in the center, but also in the peripheral circles and bring people to salvation in all of them. Therefore, Progressivism considers obsolete the dogma that a person can only be saved inside the Catholic Church, which we believe.

It seems that Schutz had heard something of this and imagined that he was “in full communion” with Catholics. Actually, in his interview to La Croix, Aloïs reports:
“He [Schutz] often told about how, in his last meeting with John XXIII in 1963, he received from the Pope a spiritual legacy and asked him about the place of Taizé inside the Church. Making circular gestures with his hands, John XXIII answered: ‘The Catholic Church is made of concentric circles - increasingly larger, increasingly larger.’ The Pope did not specify in which circle he saw Taizé, but brother Roger understood that the Pope wanted to say: ‘You are already inside, simply continue on the same path.’ That is what he did” (La Croix online, ibid).
So, if anyone wants “to grasp” the meaning of Schutz’ words regarding his “full communion” with the Catholic Faith without a conversion, he should understand that according to Progressivism, Protestants are already part of the “Church of Christ,” and therefore do not need to convert.

This is why the Bishops of Autun gave Communion to Schutz and all the members of Taizé group; this is why John Paul II “celebrated the Eucharist” in Taizé; this is why Cardinal Ratzinger gave the Holy Eucharist to the Protestant Roger Schutz, and finally this is why, when Schutz was killed, Benedict XVI affirmed that he had been saved.

I feel sorry for those traditionalists who try to mesh the present day Vatican policy with the doctrines of the Catholic Church, because they do not fit together.

I hope this response can be of some help.

      Cordially,

      A.S. Guimarães
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Posted September 9, 2006

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