The New York Times reported the death of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, who was until the age of 13 Jewish. Cardinal Lustiger converted to Catholicism in 1940 over the objections of his Jewish parents.
After the German occupation of France in 1940, he was sent with his sister to live with a Catholic woman in Orleans, where he was exposed to Catholicism, and he decided to convert.
Cardinal Lustiger always identified himself as Jewish. As archbishop, he said “I was born Jewish and so I remain, even if that is unacceptable for many. For me, the vocation of Israel (People of God) is bringing light to the goyim (non-Jews).
In the late 1970’s Cardinal Lustiger appeared to have undergone a spiritual crisis, when he considered leaving France for Israel. I had started to learn to read Hebrew, by myself, with cassettes,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 1981. “Does that seem absurd, making your alliyah?” he said, referring to a Jew’s return to Israel. I thought then that I had finished what I had to do in France that I was at a crossroads.”
Instead, Cardinal Lustiger was appointed bishop of Orleans. In that position, Cardinal Lustiger called attention to the plight of immigrant workers in the region.
Pope John Paul II appointed him archbishop of Paris in 1981. He felt burdened by this appointment and said “this nomination was as if, all of a sudden, the crucifix began to wear a yellow star.” (Yellow star was a demeaning requirement imposed by the Nazis on Jews to highlight their religious affiliation.) John Paul II purposely chose Lustiger to be an archbishop to provoke the French church; that is, the Pope by-passed the French church hierarchy to elevate Lustiger.
In 1983, he was made cardinal. He earned the nickname “bulldozer” for his energetic, sometimes authoritarian spirit. He built new churches and founded a Catholic radio station and a Catholic television enterprise.
Cardinal Lustiger worked closely with John Paul II in championing interfaith relations, both with Moslems and with Jews. He accompanied the Pope when he became the first pope to set foot in a mosque. In 1997, countering those who said that European youth were not receptive to religion, Cardinal Lustiger organized a World Youth Day which was held in Paris and attended by more than a million people, including John Paul.
In response to Jewish critics, who said that Lustiger had betrayed his people by converting in 1940, Cardinal Lustiger responded “To say I am no longer a Jew is like denying my father and mother, my grandfathers and grandmothers. I am as Jewish as all the other members of my family who were butchered in Auschwitz or the other camps.”
