Cardinal Lustiger Dies

And the obituary in the New York Times this morning by John Tagliabue is fascinating.

I knew that Lustiger was born Jewish. I had read before that his mother had died in Auschwitz and knew that he had been baptized when living with a Catholic family in hiding during WWII.

But the obituary shows to what extent, in his mind, he remained Jewish as he rose in the Catholic hierarchy. From the obituary:

"Cardinal Lustiger appeared to have undergone a spiritual crisis in the late 1970s, when he considered leaving France for Israel. "I had started to learn Hebrew by myself with cassettes," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 1981. "Does that seem absurd, making your aliyah?", he said... I thought then that I had finished what I had to do here, that I was at a crossroads." Then in a surprise appointment, he was made bishop of Orleans....."

and

"In any early interview as archbishop, he said: "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 goyim. That is my hope, and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it.""

In response to criticism from Israel's Ashkenazic chief rabbi in 1995, he said: "To say that I am no longer a Jew is like denying my father and my mother, my grandfathers and grandmothers. I am as Jewish as all the other members of my family who were butchered in Auschwitz or in the other camps."

Nothing is simple, is it?