CHAPTER 1: ECUMENICAL PROGRESS AND STAGNATION 51 founder and first prior, Catholic layman Enzo Bianchi.128 However, both men still represent exceptions to the general situation. Thus, Msgr. Gérard Daucourt, then bishop of Nanterre and member of the PCPCU, asks: “Do we agree at least to wonder whether this ‘exception’ is not called one day to become less exceptional, and to open up the way for many others?”129 Clearly, Cardinal Kasper does not refer explicitly to the arrangement between the Roman Catholic Church and Brother Roger concerning the Eucharist. He repeatedly stresses that Brother Roger’s way is not a model to be copied. Therefore, Brother Roger’s Eucharistic practice cannot easily be interpreted as precedent in the canonical sense, entitling others to claim similar arrangements. Yet, it is such an important consequence of Brother Roger’s spiritual path that it should be taken into consideration when reviewing the perspective opened up by Cardinal Kasper. Brother Roger’s successor, Brother Alois, contemplates: Brother Roger’s path is a delicate and demanding one, and we have not finished exploring it. In his steps, we want to anticipate reconciliation in our lives, starting from the Baptism that unites us, by living as people who are already reconciled, and this experience certainly prepares theological developments. In the history of the Church, has not lived-out faith always preceded the theological expression of it?130 Indeed, the theological implications of Brother Roger’s path must be explored not only in Taizé but in Bose as well, a community that has committed itself to the ecumenical mission of the Second Vatican Council to restore Christian unity. At a conference in Bose in 2014, regretting its apparent lack of contribution to consensus ecumenism,131 Bose’s members Adalberto Mainardi 128 In addition, the community of Reformed women of Grandchamp should be mentioned. The communities mutually inspired and enriched one another, with Grandchamps benefiting from the theological and liturgical efforts of Taizé, adapting its rule and office to its own context. See Minke de Vries, Thomas F. Best, and Nancy S. Gower, eds., The Fruits of Grace: The Ecumenical Experience of the Community of Grandchamp, trans. Nancy Sanders Gower (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2017). 129 Gérard Daucourt, “Ecumenism Is First of All an Exchange of Gifts,” trans. Taizé Community, La Croix, 2006, https://www.taize.fr/en_article6740.html. 130 Brother Alois, “A Passion for the Unity of Christ’s Body,” Lecture at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, 2012, https://saltandlighttv.org/blogfeed/getpost.php?id=37049. 131 Adalberto Mainardi and Matthias Wirz, “Expériences monastiques et mouvement oecuménique au XXe siècle,” in Toward a History of the Desire for Christian Unity: Preliminary Research Papers: Proceedings of the International Conference at the Monastery of Bose, ed. Luca
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