Jean-Marie Lustiger

Early years Lustiger was born Aron Lustiger in Paris to a Jewish family. His parents, Charles and Gisèle Lustiger, were Ashkenazi Jews from Będzin, Poland, who had left Poland around World War I. Lustiger's father ran a hosiery shop. Aron Lustiger studied at the Lycée Montaigne in Paris, where he first encountered anti-Semitism. Visiting Germany in 1937, he was hosted by an anti-Nazi Protestant family whose children had been required to join the Hitler Youth. In March 1940, during Holy Week, the 13-year-old Lustiger decided to convert to Catholicism. On 21 August he was baptized as Aron Jean-Marie by the Bishop of Orléans, Jules-Marie-Victor Courcoux. His sister converted later. In October 1940, the Vichy regime passed the first of many anti-Semitic laws, which forced increasingly strict conditions on Jews in the unoccupied zone. Early career Lustiger graduated from the Sorbonne with a literature degree in 1946. He entered the seminary of the Carmelite fathers in Paris, and later the Institut Catholique de Paris. He first visited Israel in 1951. On 17 April 1954 he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Émile-Arsène Blanchet, rector of the Institut Catholique. Lustiger received his episcopal consecration on 8 December 1979 from Cardinal François Marty, with Archbishop Eugène Ernoult of Sens and Bishop Daniel Pézeril serving as co-consecrators. When installed as bishop, Lustiger avoided all reference to his liberal predecessor Guy-Marie Riobé, a pacifist closely allied to Catholic Action. Lustiger also founded a new seminary for training priests, bypassing the existing arrangements. He was considered, primarily by his critics, to be authoritarian, earning him the nickname of "Bulldozer". Lustiger had his right-hand man, André Vingt-Trois, appointed bishop in 1988. Following Marcel Lefebvre's schism in June 1988, Lustiger tried to reduce tensions with the Traditionalist Catholics, celebrating a Tridentine Mass He deposed the priest Alain Maillard de La Morandais from his diplomatic functions toward the political sphere, as he considered him to be too pro-Balladur during the 1995 presidential campaign. but he always refused to discuss any such possibility. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. Relations with the Jewish world Along with Cardinal Francis Arinze and Bishop Jean-Baptiste Gourion of Jerusalem, Lustiger was one of only three prelates of his time who were converts to the Catholic faith; he and Gourion were the only two who were born Jewish and still considered themselves "Jewish" all their lives. He said he was proud of his Jewish origins and described himself as a "fulfilled Jew", for which he was chastised by Christians and Jews alike. Former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau publicly denounced Lustiger. Lau accused Lustiger of betraying the Jewish people by converting to Catholicism, alongside another rabbi who accused him of causing more harm than Adolf Hitler by converting to Christianity. Lustiger, who claimed that he was still a Jew, considered being "Jewish" as an ethnic designation and not exclusively a religious one. Lustiger's strong support for the State of Israel, conflicting with the Vatican's officially neutral position, also won him Jewish support. On becoming Archbishop of Paris, Lustiger said: I was born Jewish and so I remain, even if that is unacceptable for many. For me, the vocation of Israel is bringing light to the goyim. That is my hope and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it. The former chief rabbi of France, Rabbi René Samuel Sirat, says he personally witnessed Lustiger entering the synagogue to recite kaddish—the Jewish mourners' prayer—for his mother. Cardinal Lustiger gained recognition after negotiating in 1987 with representatives of the organized Jewish community (including Théo Klein, the former president of the CRIF) the departure of the Carmelite nuns who built a convent in Auschwitz concentration camp (see Auschwitz cross). He was also in Birkenau along with the new Pope Benedict XVI in May 2006. In 1995, Cardinal Lustiger attended the reading of an act of repentance with a group of French rabbis, during which Catholic authorities apologized for the French Church's passive attitude towards the collaborationism policies enacted by the Vichy regime during World War II. Klein called Lustiger "his cousin". == Public lectures ==

In 1996, Lustiger delivered the tenth Erasmus Lecture, titled Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, sponsored by First Things magazine and the Institute on Religion and Public Life. In his address, Lustiger reflected on the legacy of the French Revolution’s ideals and their relationship to Christian conceptions of freedom, equality, and human solidarity. He argued that the moral and spiritual renewal of Western society depends on recovering the transcendent foundations of these principles. Retirement and death When Lustiger reached the age of 75 on 17 September 2001, he submitted his resignation as Archbishop of Paris to Pope John Paul II, as required by canon law. The Pope kept it on file for some years. But on 11 February 2005, Lustiger's resignation was accepted and André Vingt-Trois, a former auxiliary bishop of Paris who had become Archbishop of Tours, succeeded him as Archbishop of Paris. Lustiger made his final public appearance in January 2007. He died on 5 August 2007 at a clinic outside Paris where he had been battling bone and lung cancer since April. Lustiger's epitaph, which he wrote himself in 2004, can be seen in the crypt of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and translates as: I was born Jewish. I received the name Of my paternal grandfather, Aron. Having become Christian By faith and by Baptism, I have remained Jewish As did the Apostles. I have as my patron saints Aron the High Priest, Saint John the Apostle, Holy Mary full of grace. Named 139th archbishop of Paris by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, I was enthroned in this Cathedral on 27 February 1981, And here I exercised my entire ministry. Passers-by, pray for me. † Aron Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger Archbishop of Paris ==Distinctions==

• : Grand cordon of the National Order of the Cedar • : Bailli Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta • : Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry ==Auxiliaries==

The following bishops served as auxiliaries in the Paris diocese under Cardinal Lustiger. • Daniel Pézeril • Georges Gilson • Emile Marcus • Claude Fricard • André Vingt-Trois • Éric Aumonier • Michel Pollien ==Published works==

• ''Sermons d'un curé de Paris'' (1978) • Pain de vie et peuple de Dieu (1981) • Osez croire (1985) • Osez vivre (1985) • Premiers pas dans la prière (1986) • ''Prenez place au cœur de l'Église'' (1986) • Six sermons aux élus de la Nation, 1981-1986 (1987) • Le Choix de Dieu. Entretiens avec Jean-Louis Missika et Dominique Wolton (1987) • La Messe (1988) • ''Dieu merci, les droits de l'homme'' (1990) • ''Le Sacrement de l'onction des malades'' (1990) • Le Saint-Ayoul de Jeanclos (in collaboration with Alain Peyrefitte, 1990) • ''Nous avons rendez-vous avec l'Europe'' (1991) • Dare to rejoice (American compilation) (1991) • Petites paroles de nuit de Noël (1992) • Devenez dignes de la condition humaine (1995) • ''Henri de Lubac et le mystère de l'Eglise : actes du colloque du 12 octobre 1996 à l'Institut de France'' (1999) • Le Baptême de votre enfant (1997) • Soyez heureux (1997) • ''Pour l'Europe, un nouvel art de vivre'' (1999) • Les prêtres que Dieu donne (2000) • Comme Dieu vous aime. Un pèlerinage à Jérusalem, Rome et Lourdes (2001) • La Promesse (2002) • Comment Dieu ouvre la porte de la foi (2004) • Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger on Christians and Jews (2010) == See also ==