c. 2007 Religion News Service
Former Paris Cardinal, a Jewish Convert, Dies at 80
(RNS) Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, a Jewish convert whose mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp before he rose to become the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris, died Sunday (August 6) at the age of 80.
The cause of death was an undisclosed illness for which he had been hospitalized since April. According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, Lustiger suffered from cancer.
Born to Polish Jews in Paris in 1926, Lustiger converted to Roman Catholicism in 1940, while living with a Catholic family in the city of Orleans, where his parents had sent him after the German invasion of France. His mother died in Auschwitz in 1943.
After studying literature at the Sorbonne, Lustiger entered the seminary and became a priest in 1954. For 15 years, he was dedicated to the spiritual needs of university students, first at the Sorbonne and then as head of a training school for university chaplains.
In 1969, Lustiger became pastor of a church in a wealthy Paris neighborhood, the 16th Arrondissment. Pope John Paul II made him bishop of Orleans in 1979, and promoted him to archbishop of Paris in 1981, where he served until 2005. Lustiger was made a cardinal in 1983.
As archbishop, Lustiger was a prominent advocate for Christian-Jewish relations, accompanying John Paul on a visit to Jerusalem in 2000, and helping settle a dispute over a convent of Carmelite nuns at Auschwitz. Jewish leaders protested the presence of the convent there until, at the cardinal’s suggestion, John Paul ordered it moved in 1993.
Lustiger always said that he considered himself to have remained a Jew despite his conversion, though some Jewish leaders pointedly disagreed.
The cardinal was also active in other areas of interfaith relations, and accompanied John Paul on a 2001 trip to Damascus, Syria, which included the first papal visit to a mosque.
Often mentioned as a possible successor to John Paul, Lustiger was a luminary of French culture, elected in 1995 to the august Academie Francaise.
In a telegram of condolence to the current archbishop of Paris, Pope Benedict XVI commemorated a “pastor zealous in the search for God and the proclamation of the Gospel to the world,” particularly noting Lustiger’s work with students and his efforts to “promote ever more fraternal relations between Christians and Jews.”
A funeral mass will take place Friday (August 10) at Paris’ Cathedral of Notre Dame.
_ Francis X. Rocca
Thou Shalt Leave Thy Blackberry at Home
WASHINGTON (RNS) Denizens of Washington, D.C. are the most addicted, but more Atlantans do it in church. Fewer folks do it in Minneapolis, and when they do, they keep it out of the sanctuary.
According to a new 20-city survey on “e-mail addiction” released by AOL, the nation’s capitol is the most afflicted overall _ no surprise to anyone who’s witnessed this city’s “crackberry” epidemic.
But Atlanta led the way in checking e-mail in church, with 22 percent confessing to peeking at their portable device during services, according to the survey.
AOL says the survey, which was conducted online, included 4,025 respondents 13 and older from 20 cities around the country. They measured a city’s number of e-mail addicts by the percentage of residents who have more than one e-mail account; how many times they check their e-mail each day; how often people check personal e-mails while at work; the percentage of people who e-mail more than once a day while on vacation; the time spent writing or reading e-mail; and the percentage who admit to an e-mail addiction.
The survey was conducted June 7-19. Its margin of error for the overall sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points; for individual cities, the margin of error is plus or minus 7 percentage points.
Houston and Denver tied for second in the checking-e-mail-in-church category, with 19 percent in both cities confessing to the deed. Washington placed third with 18 percent, followed closely by Los Angeles (17 percent), Sacramento and Phoenix (15 percent) and Tampa (13 percent).
No one in Minneapolis reported checking e-mail messages in church.
_ Daniel Burke
Mayor Stirs Anger With Catholic Postcards
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Mayor George Heartwell’s campaign postcard to Catholic voters has upset some local members of that faith.
The face of the postcard shows St. Mary’s Catholic Church steeple and the Basilica of St. Adalbert. The back is signed by prominent local Catholics, including the Rev. Mark Przybysz, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.
It is one of seven mailings for Heartwell, a Protestant who is ordained in the United Church of Christ, that also target Protestants, Republicans, Democrats and the city’s three wards.
Each one shows iconic images for each constituency and is signed by leaders of the target group. Heartwell is seeking a second term in the Aug. 7 primary election.
Heartwell’s opponent, City Councilman Rick Tormala, who is Catholic and received the postcard, called it “insulting and deceptive.
“It would be like me sending a letter or postcard to Muslims with a mosque in it,” he said.
Roman Catholic Bishop Walter Hurley, meanwhile, said the Catholic Church is not _ and will not be _ in the endorsement business.
“The Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids has not and will not support or endorse individual candidates in a political election,” Hurley said. “Campaign materials currently being distributed … could imply the Catholic church’s support for a particular candidate. It has long been the tradition of the Catholic church not to support or endorse an individual candidate.”
_ Jim Harger and Lindsay Vanhulle
Quote of the Day: Lutheran Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson
(RNS) “We welcome persons of color, but often the expectation is that they will become like us rather than that we we will be transformed by their presence.”
_ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, speaking about the challenges of integrating his denomination, which is 97 percent white. He was quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times.
KRE DS END RNS
