Paris Cardinal Lustiger laid to rest in crypt of Notre Dame Cathedral

Published: 2007-08-10

PARIS (CNS) -- Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, former archbishop of Paris, was laid to rest in the crypt of Notre Dame Cathedral after a Catholic funeral that included references to his Jewish heritage. Arno Lustiger, his 83-year-old cousin and a Nazi-death-camp survivor, recited the kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, before the cardinal's coffin was carried into the cathedral. The cardinal was born a Jew and converted to Catholicism as a teenager during World War II. His mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. At Cardinal Lustiger's request, a plaque inside Notre Dame Cathedral will read, "I was born a Jew. I received the name of my paternal grandfather, Aaron. Christian by faith and by baptism, I remained a Jew, as did the Apostles." A message read on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI called the late cardinal "a man of faith and dialogue" and praised his commitment to improving relations between Christians and Jews. His successor as archbishop of Paris, Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois, said Cardinal Lustiger "put in place the decisive acts in the development of relations between Jews and Christians that perhaps only he could have undertaken."

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