KATHMANDU (UCAN) -- Young Catholics in Nepal say a visiting Taize brother has inspired them to work for the poor.

"I have now realized that we local youths can also do what Brother Siegmar is doing, helping the poor in our own country," Ishwar Shrestha told UCA News. "All of us youths can join hands and make a difference in the lives of the thousands of poor people who have a tough time managing two square meals a day," he added.

Brother Siegmar, an Italian member of the ecumenical Taize community, visited Nepal Jan. 15-Feb. 4. He met with members of the Nepal Catholic Youth Movement in Kathmandu and visited Catholic institutions and parishes.

The monk also visited foreign prisoners languishing in a jail in Kathmandu. "We bought mattresses for the Africans in jail and assured them of our prayers," Brother Siegmar told UCA News on Feb. 4 as he left for Bangladesh, where he works for the poor. According to him, several prisoners from African countries are in jail in Kathmandu for visa violations and drug-related crimes.

While in Kathmandu, he joined youths from Assumption Church in loading bricks onto a truck and taking them to where they are building a house for a poor parishioner in a poor area of the capital. The parish donated the bricks.

Brother Siegmar told the youths they are the "motivating force of the Church" and should be "committed to ensuring the wellbeing of the parish." He held several meetings with the young people during which he also explained what the Taize community does and showed a short documentary on Taize prayer.

He also met with Protestant pastors and said emphasized to them that the Taize community is ecumenical, and as such, he was in predominantly Hindu Nepal to spread the message of reconciliation among Christians as well as among all people.

Before leaving Nepal, Brother Siegmar held a Taize prayer session at Assumption Church, the main Catholic parish in the capital. Around 200 Catholics of various ages joined him in the prayers.

Santosh Magar, a Catholic youth, was "touched" by the Taize brother's presence. "After listening to Brother Siegmar for several days and after attending the Taize prayers, I feel I have gained a lot spiritually," Magar told UCA News.

The Nepal youths' connection with Taize started in October, when some visited the Taize community in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, while attending a South Asian youth program. Back in Kathmandu they have organizing several Taize prayer sessions.

Brother Siegmar, who goes by only one name, also visited a parish in Dharan, about 240 kilometers southeast of Kathmandu, where he met Father Augusty Pulickal, the national Catholic youth chaplain. He said, "We discussed ways to enable Catholic youths to be more active in leading prayers in their church."

The Italian monk told Catholic and Hindu youths in Dharan that God had blessed them with individual talents that they should use to help one another, which will bring peace, harmony, hope and trust among people of all faiths.

Brother Siegmar said he would in the near future invite young Nepalese Catholics to France to attend Taize prayer sessions there, as well as to Bangladesh to work with him for a short period.

The late Brother Roger Schutz founded the community in the 1940s in Taize, in eastern France, to work and pray for world peace. The prayer style the community developed features repetitive singing or chanting of simple songs, meditation and reflection on Gospel passages around the cross. It has become popular in many places around the world, especially among young people.

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