by His Holiness Pope John Paul II, [6] Liberal French clergy considered Lustiger's nomination a defeat for them.[8]. That is my hope and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it. Lustiger's search for dialogue with politicians led to his founding in 1992 of the Centre Pastoral d'Etudes politiques at St. Clotilde church in the 7th arrondissement, close to the hub of the French establishment. Lustiger was a favorite of Pope John Paul II. He founded KTO TV in 1999, which struggled financially. 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. The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, protested the award, saying it was "inappropriate" to honor Lustiger, who was born a Jew but left the faith. I was enthroned in this Cathedral In 1984, Lustiger led a mass rally at Versailles in opposition to the Savary Law, which reduced state aid to private (which was mostly Catholic) education. As a cardinal, Lustiger began to attract international attention. He said that the position was being given to "someone who is not truly of French origin". Théo Klein observed that although conversions usually carry negative connotations in the Jewish world, it was not so with the Cardinal. [8] Along with Cardinal Albert Decourtray, he strongly criticised Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988, clashing with the liberal bishop Jacques Gaillot.[8]. He was less amenable to initiatives from non-French Catholic groups or individuals (their position was inconclusively debated at the Diocesan Synod). Auftritt Tanzschule TanzSucht beim Familiensamstag in Halle am 28.06.2014. [8] In 1982, he invited for the celebration of Lent in Notre-Dame Roger Etchegaray (whom he disliked at first) and the Jesuit Roger Heckel. on 27 February 1981, In Le Choix de Dieu (The Choice of God, 1987), he declared that modern anti-Semitism was the product of the Enlightenment, whose philosophy he attacked.[3][8]. 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. In September 1942, his mother was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp where she was murdered the following year. He supported the 1905 Law on the Separation of Church and State, but, when testifying before the Commission Stasi on secularism, he opposed the 2004 French law on secularity, which limited conspicuous religious symbols in schools. [2][6] He represented Pope John Paul II in January 2005 during the 60th-year commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz camp by the Allies. He pursued ecumenism but also gave a critical address on Anglicanism when welcoming Archbishop Robert Runcie to Notre Dame. He sought to identify and conciliate rising national élites in politics and communication. When appointed to Paris he encouraged some liberal clergy to return to the lay state. He was considered papabile, or eligible for election as pope. Following Marcel Lefebvre's schism in June 1988, Lustiger tried to reduce tensions with the Traditionalist Catholics, celebrating a Tridentine Mass[8] and sending conservative priest Patrick Le Gal as his emissary to Lefebvre. Lustiger's strong support for the State of Israel, conflicting with the Vatican's officially neutral position, also won him Jewish support. It was internationally marketed as Breathless. The World Jewish Congress paid homage to him after his death.[21]. [2], On 31 January 1981 Lustiger was named Archbishop of Paris, succeeding Cardinal Marty. [8] He participated in the annual meeting of the movement Comunione e Liberazione in Rimini in summer 1982. [3] Despite his opposition to Mitterrand's governments, Lustiger, as Archbishop of Paris. As did the Apostles. Herz erkannt, voll entflammt, ließt die Liebe zu Euch rein. [8] He founded the Non-Governmental Organization Tibériade to attend to AIDS patients. He incurred the hostility of some in the Spanish Church because he strongly opposed the project to canonize Queen Isabella I of Castile. [2][5], In March 1940, during Holy Week, the 13-year-old Lustiger decided to convert to Roman Catholicism. Former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau publicly denounced Lustiger. Ein Ständchen zu Petras 50. He was influential in the appointment of his moderate conciliar auxiliary Georges Gilson to the See of Le Mans, replacing senior clergy with men who shared similar views to his own. "When it is faith, I agree with the Pope because I am responsible for the faith." [6], Lustiger upheld papal authority in theology and morals: "There are opinions and there is faith," he said in 1997. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983 by Pope John Paul II. He also said: "The Christian faith says that all men are equal in dignity because they are all created in the image of God." [8] His main influence was Henri de Lubac, as well as the Jesuits Albert and Paul Chapelle. [8] Lustiger, unlike other leading twentieth-century French bishops, did not draw noticeably on patristic writings and was more sensitive to rabbinic texts. [6] In October 1940, the Vichy regime passed the first Statute on Jews, which forced Jews in France to wear a yellow badge. His parents, Charles and Gisèle Lustiger, were Ashkenazi Jews from Będzin, Poland, who had left Poland around World War I. It was written by Kristina Bach and produced by Fischer's long-time contributor Jean Frankfurter for her sixth studio album, Farbenspiel (2013). [8] In October 1981, the French bishops elected the more liberal Jean Vilnet as President of the Episcopal Conference, with whom Lustiger was on difficult terms throughout his life. Aaron Lustiger studied at the Lycée Montaigne in Paris, where he first encountered anti-Semitism. [8] Close to Augustinism, he preferred the post-conciliar theologian Louis Bouyer to the (pre-conciliar) neo-Thomist Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. His life is depicted in the 2013 film Le métis de Dieu (The Jewish Cardinal). [8] The new archbishop was particularly attentive to the media; he developed Catholic radio and television channels (Radio Notre-Dame) after François Mitterrand's liberalization of French media in 1981. Le Figaro, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, announced Lustiger's death. [18] He was also in Birkenau along with the new Pope Benedict XVI in May 2006. Along with Cardinal Francis Arinze[12] and Bishop Jean-Baptiste Gourion of Jerusalem, Lustiger was one of only three prelates of his time who were converts to the Roman Catholic faith; he and Gourion were the only two who were born Jewish and still considered themselves "Jewish" all their lives. In France, however, Lustiger enjoyed good relations with the Jewish community. This opposition cemented Lustiger's relations with the groups supporting private education, from whose midst he was to draw most of his candidates for the priesthood. [2] Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Traditionalist Catholic group Society of Saint Pius X, criticized his nomination. [8] Two years later, he organized a World Youth Day in Paris, attended by more than a million people. Aaron Jean-Marie Lustiger (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ maʁi lystiʒe] (listen); 17 September 1926 – 5 August 2007[1][2]) was a French cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church with Jewish Heritage. He developed rather good working relations with François Mitterrand's Socialist government, despite their political disagreements. Passers-by, pray for me. Lustiger was never elected as head of the Conférence des évêques de France (French Episcopal Conference) by his peers, with whom he was not popular. [2] From 1954 to 1959 he was a chaplain at the Sorbonne. He was Archbishop of Paris from 1981 until his resignation in 2005. "We have known for 50 years that the theory of racial inequality can be deadly. 1. From 1969 to 1979, Lustiger was vicar of the Parish of Sainte-Jeanne-de-Chantal, in the wealthy 16th arrondissement of Paris. Along with his clerical contacts, Lustiger maintained contacts with the political world. [1] Lustiger also founded a new seminary for training priests, bypassing the existing arrangements. Some parishes were entrusted to charismatic movements. He read the Thomistic philosophers Étienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain—one of the main Catholic thinkers of his youth—as well as Jean Guitton, but also the Protestant philosopher Paul Ricœur, and Maurice Clavel, and the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. He had a Polish background and staunchly upheld the Pope's conservative views in the face of much hostility from liberal Catholic opinion in France. [2] John Paul had been advised by Cardinal Paolo Bertoli, who was displeased with a new illustrated Catechism for French urban youth (Pierres vivantes) and was on bad terms with most of the French clergy. [13][14] 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. [citation needed] In 1995, Lustiger played a key role in deposing the liberal bishop of Évreux, Jacques Gaillot, who was then transferred to the titular see of Partenia. Relations with the cultural sphere were promoted by a series of Lenten Sermons at Notre-Dame (into which dialogue with prominent French intellectuals and state-employed academics were introduced) and by plans for the opening of the Centre St. Bernard in the 5th arrondissement. He was considered, primarily by his critics, to be authoritarian, earning him the nickname of "Bulldozer". For the next ten years, he was the director of Richelieu Centre, which trains university chaplains and counsels lay teachers and students of the grandes écoles, graduate schools such as the ÉNS-Fontenay-Saint-Cloud or the Ecole des Chartes. ...It entails outrages." [8] In January 1983 he invited Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Notre-Dame de Paris, where the latter criticized new catechisms proposed by a large part of the French clergy. Heute Nacht, heute Nacht werden wir uns für Euch freu´n. † Aaron Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger Saint John the Apostle, On 10 November 1979, Lustiger was appointed Bishop of Orléans by Pope John Paul II after a 15-month vacancy. His epitaph, which he wrote himself in 2004, can be seen in the crypt of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and translates as: I was born Jewish. He entered the seminary of the Carmelite fathers in Paris, and later the Institut Catholique de Paris. "But I don't think he should be honored because he converted out, which makes him a poor example." [15] Lustiger, who claimed that he was still a Jew, considered being "Jewish" as an ethnic designation and not exclusively a religious one. In Paris, he ordained 200 priests; they represented 15 percent of the French total, and were drawn from a diocese which had two per cent of the French population. This led to some speculation that Lustiger would be a candidate to succeed John Paul II,[11] but he always refused to discuss any such possibility. And here I exercised my entire ministry. [20] Klein called Lustiger "his cousin".[17]. Having become Christian On 17 April 1954 he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Émile-Arsène Blanchet, rector of the Institut Catholique. [8] During the celebrations of the second centenary of the French Revolution in 1989, he opposed Minister of Culture Jack Lang about the Pantheonization of the Abbé Grégoire, one of the first priests to take the oath on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. His sister converted later. Of my paternal grandfather, Aaron. [5] Strongly attached to the ideal of priestly celibacy, Lustiger used his position as Ordinary for Orientals to prevent the deployment of married Eastern Rite Catholic priests in France.