The following commentary was given by Scott Simon on NPR radio, Saturday
There used to be a joke in Paris, what is the difference between the
chief rabbi in France and the Cardinal of Paris? The Cardinal speaks
Jean Marie Cardinal Lustiger was buried yesterday; he died this week of
cancer. He was born almost 81 years ago to Polish parents who ran a
dress shop in Paris. When the German army marched in his parents sent
him and his sister into hiding with a Catholic family in Orleans. Their
mother was captured and sent to Auschwitz.
In 1999 as Cardinal of Paris, Jean Marie Lustiger took part in reading
of the names of France's day of remembrance of Jews who had been
deported and murdered. He came to the name Gesele Lustiger, paused,
teared and said, "My Mama".
The effect in France during a time of revived anti-Semitism was
He was just 13 and in hiding when he converted to Catholicism, not to
the Nazis he always said, because no Jew could escape by conversion, and
Among his most controversial observations, 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 goyem. That is my hope and I believe
that Christianity is the means for achieving it.
There were a great number of rabbi's who consider his conversion a
Especially after so many European Jews had so narrowly escaped
extinction. Cardinal Lustiger replied: .." to say that I am no longer a
Jew is like denying my father and mother, my grandfathers and
grandmothers. I am as Jewish as all other members of my family that were
butchered in Auschwitz and other camps".
He confessed to a biographer that he had a spiritual crisis in the
1970's, provoked by persistent anti-Semitism in France. He studied
Hebrew, and considered emigrating. He said "I thought that I had
finished what I had to do here and I thought I might find new meaning in
Israel". But just at that time the pope appointed him bishop of
Orleans. He found purpose he said in the plight of immigrant workers.
Then he was elevated to Cardinal. The Archbishop of Paris.
Jean Marie Lustiger was close to the Pope. They shared a doctrinal
conservatism. He also battled bigotry and totalitarianism. For years
Cardinal Lustiger's name was among those who was considered to succeed
John Paul. Without putting himself forth, the Cardinal joked that few
things would bedevil bigots more than a Jewish Pope.
They don't like to admit it he said, but what Christians believe, they
The funeral for Cardinal Lustiger began at Notre Dame Cathedral
yesterday, with the chanting of Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the
Sometimes there are profound inconsistencies in our world.