In the Cathedral of Orleans the future Cardinal sensed that that which drew him to consider the Jewish question, found its meaning and completion in the form of the Messias.
(kreuz.net) On April 4th the French publisher Grasset pulished the first biography of the former Archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger (+2007).
The author is Henri Tincq -- former Church correspondent for the anti-Clerical French newspaper 'Le Monde'.
The Chief Rabbi was Called
On Holy Thursday, 1940, the 13 year old Aron Lustiger entered the Cathedral of Orleans.
He later recalled: "There I felt that that which I had considered in the Jewish question, found its meaning and its completion in the form of the Messias."
Already on the 25th of August of the same year Aron and his sister, Arlette were baptized.
The religiously indifferent parents were against it. They even sought the intervention of a Chief Rabbi, to dissuade them from their plan.
Baptism Held in Secret
The biography reported that the parents of the Cardinal were baptized.
"Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger had always kept this a secret" -- wrote Tincq.
He found the corresponding baptismal certificate in the Ordinariat of Orleans.
No Fake Baptism
Charles and Gisele Lustiger --who were both born in Poland -- were baptized on the 31st of October in 1940.
The baptism was celebrated by Bishop Jules-Marie Courcoux (+1951) of Orleans.
Tincq explains that the parents allowed themselves to be baptized, to protect the family against anti-Jewish measures.
Actually, that's not the case.
The Mother was Imprisoned
Because the Germans did not respect -- then as today -- the rights of Catholics.
Mother Gisele was arrested on the 10th of September 1942, because she wasn't wearing a Jewish star.
She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and lost her life in February of 1943.
The Parisian home of the family in the Rue Delambre was searched and sealed.
Saved by the Church
Father Charles went to south western France in what is today the 6,000 population community of Decaville in the region Midi-Pyrenees, to find a place of refuge for his family.
Jean-Marie came down and reached him in 1943. Actually, they were both discovered and had to flee.
Father Charles found accomodation in the Jesuit directed school École de Purpan in Toulouse.
Jean-Marie was hidden with Father Bezombes -- an important figure in the French Resistence -- til the liberation of France.
