- Feb 5, 2002
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The son of Ashkenazi Jews from Poland who immigrated to France during WWI, Aron Lustiger was baptized at 16 and would come to prefer to be addressed by his Christian name Jean-Marie. Ordained a priest, he rose in the Church to become Archbishop of Paris in 1981 and named cardinal by Pope John Paul II. His recollection of his conversion to Catholicism during a lengthy interview paints a picture of the beauty and spiritual attraction of the Church in France.†
A voracious reader as a child, he recalls that at the age of ten he found a book about the martyrdom of English Catholics during the reformation:
They were imprisoned and persecuted for their faith. In one way, it was totally incomprehensible, since I had not yet studied history and had no idea about England or the reformation, or the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant. …But I did recognize the meaning of martyrdom and the absolute of God. For God’s sake, to be faithful to what he asks, one must give everything.
His parents were serious about Judaism but for the most part non-practicing. At home Lustiger had access to the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, and these were central to Lustiger’s discovery of the Christian faith. Still ten years old, his father sent him to spend the Summer in Germany to learn German. This was in 1936 when the NAZIs were already in power. He lived in a boarding house with a Christian family who were anti-Hitler.
I was plunged into another world. In it there prevailed a calm good-naturedness, steeped in morality and the Gospel, that is perhaps the best of the Germanic way of life. …What struck me most in Germany was the discovery of a Christian family.
His family left Paris at the outbreak of war and moved to Orléans. Again, he lived with Catholics and these early interactions with Christians were mostly positive and impressionable.
I shared the daily life of devoted Christians. They knew very well that my sister and I were Jewish, and they always showed exemplary discretion.
What he meant by that is that their Christian hosts did not try to convert them.
In Orleans I rediscovered the Christian world from the interior. …Since I was curious and observant, I asked all sorts of questions as I went about discovering extraordinary places, …all the many monuments and churches in Orleans. …A certain content of Christianity became accessible to me, from the interior, by means of culture and everyday life.
He recalls the moment he chose to become a Christian, a deeply spiritual experience that occurred at the Cathedral of Orléans:
Continued below.
thefivebeasts.wordpress.com
A voracious reader as a child, he recalls that at the age of ten he found a book about the martyrdom of English Catholics during the reformation:
They were imprisoned and persecuted for their faith. In one way, it was totally incomprehensible, since I had not yet studied history and had no idea about England or the reformation, or the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant. …But I did recognize the meaning of martyrdom and the absolute of God. For God’s sake, to be faithful to what he asks, one must give everything.
His parents were serious about Judaism but for the most part non-practicing. At home Lustiger had access to the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, and these were central to Lustiger’s discovery of the Christian faith. Still ten years old, his father sent him to spend the Summer in Germany to learn German. This was in 1936 when the NAZIs were already in power. He lived in a boarding house with a Christian family who were anti-Hitler.
I was plunged into another world. In it there prevailed a calm good-naturedness, steeped in morality and the Gospel, that is perhaps the best of the Germanic way of life. …What struck me most in Germany was the discovery of a Christian family.
His family left Paris at the outbreak of war and moved to Orléans. Again, he lived with Catholics and these early interactions with Christians were mostly positive and impressionable.
I shared the daily life of devoted Christians. They knew very well that my sister and I were Jewish, and they always showed exemplary discretion.
What he meant by that is that their Christian hosts did not try to convert them.
In Orleans I rediscovered the Christian world from the interior. …Since I was curious and observant, I asked all sorts of questions as I went about discovering extraordinary places, …all the many monuments and churches in Orleans. …A certain content of Christianity became accessible to me, from the interior, by means of culture and everyday life.
He recalls the moment he chose to become a Christian, a deeply spiritual experience that occurred at the Cathedral of Orléans:
Continued below.
A Cardinal Conversion: Remembering Jean-Marie Lustiger
The son of Ashkenazi Jews from Poland who immigrated to France during WWI, Aron Lustiger was baptized at 16 and would come to prefer to be addressed by his Christian name Jean-Marie. Ordained a pri…
thefivebeasts.wordpress.com
