En jødisk katolsk kardinal døde søndag

“Jeg ble født jødisk og det er jeg fortsatt, selv om mange ikke aktepterer det. For meg er Israels oppgave å bringe lys til hagoyim (folkeslagene), og tror de gjør det gjennom den kristne tro.” Dette sa kardinal Jean-Marie Aaron Lustiger, som døde søndag, 80 år gammel. Han ble utnevnt til erkebiskop i Paris i 1981, og var det helt fram til 2005.

New York Times skriver en interessant artikkel om erkebiskopen, og sier bl.a.:

Aaron Lustiger was born on Sept. 17, 1926, in Paris, the first of two children of Charles and Gisèle Lustiger; his parents had met in Paris after moving to France from Poland around World War I.

After the German occupation of France in 1940, Aaron was sent with his sister, Arlette, to live with a Catholic woman in Orléans, where the children were exposed to Catholicism and where Aaron, at 13, against the wishes of his parents, decided to convert. He was baptized in August 1940, adding the name Jean-Marie to Aaron. His sister was baptized later.

In September 1942, their mother was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she died in 1943; the father survived the war, returning to Paris, where he died in 1982. ...

Jewish-Christian relations were a concern of his throughout his career. He spoke on that theme repeatedly. But his assertions that he had remained a Jew despite his conversion drew outcries from some Jewish leaders. “I believe he saw himself as a Jewish Christian, like the first disciples,” said Gilbert Levine, the conductor and a close friend of the cardinal.

Like John Paul, Cardinal Lustiger was a conservative. ... He was also amiable and often informal. He would wear loafers and black corduroy suits with stylish cuts and sit on the edge of a desk, legs dangling, as he talked to students in a packed church hall. But the core of his message was traditionalist.

LES MER HER.