Abbey-Roads2

Cardinal Lustiger has died in Paris.  Of course I have never met him or even seen him in person, yet I have great respect and love for the man.  He never considered himself anything but a Jew who found the completion of his faith in the Roman Catholic Church.  He entered the Church, receiving Baptism at the age of 14 while living in hiding from the Nazis.  Shortly afterwards, his mother Gisele was exterminated in the Nazi death camps.

He supported the cause for canonization of Jacques Fesch, the “accidental murderer” who had been the last person to be guillotined in France.  He was Cardinal Archbishop of Paris when the Trappist Monks of Atlas were abducted and then beheaded.  He was also the friend and confident of John Paul II, with whom he shared a common Polish heritage.

Some uber-Catholic traditionalists considered him a liberal and were also suspicious of the Cardinal’s insistence that he remained a Jew, understanding his embrace of Catholicism as the fulfillment of his faith.  For me, this is one reason why I loved him so much.

Jean -Marie Cardinal Lustiger  +9/17/26 - 8/5/07+