Cardinal Lustiger was born to Jewish parents and placed with a Catholic family in order to be more likely to survive the Nazi barbarism. His mother perished at Auschwitz but his father survived. Does anyone know what relationship the future Cardinal had with his father after the war? Did they speak? Did his father try to “get him back”? Thanks.
One tiny, little bump. Just one.
All I can find in English are single sentences like the following in Lustiger bios:
Sort of implying that he didn’t like it, but eventually resigned himself to it. Or maybe after the “for years”, he died. Hard to determine.
I found this in an article in French:
From the hash Babelfish makes of it, it seems to say that after the war Jean-Marie met with his father, the rabbi Jacob Kaplan and a priest who had defended the jews to make sure Lustiger had not been coerced in his conversion.
From the cached copy of this article on google (this link gives me "no permission):
http://www.cardinalrating.com/cardinal_54__article_665.htm
You can get the cached article by googling for “jean marie charles lustiger”, with quotes around the “charles lustiger” - that only returns a couple articles.
I think there is a common misunderstanding of Lustinger’s conversion (not saying you Karl Gauss). He wasn’t a boy being hidden after his parents fled being fed Jesus stories and into a semi-forced conversion. He was in a community under seige and soon toi be under actual occupation - it was totally awful and horrible … but he was still living with his parents and was in still Free France when he converted.
From this site (Witnessing)
http://www.frtommylane.com/homilies/year_c/20-2.htm
Just before the German invasion of France in 1940 he told his parents he wanted to be baptised. Cardinal Lustiger says “it was an unbearably painful scene when he told his parents. He explained that he was not abandoning being a Jew but discovering its real meaning. His parents did not understand and he suffered greatly from their pain. He took the step only because he felt it was absolutely necessary for his soul. Finally his parents, after having brought him to a rabbi to whom he explained why he thought Christ was the Messiah, consented not only for Aaron but also for his sister, who wanted to follow her brother…” (Bread from Heaven: stories of Jews who found the Messiah edited by Ronda Chervin, published by Remnant of Israel © 1994 page 54.) During the persecution of the Jews in France his father left Paris to look for a place elsewhere for the family. Unfortunately his mother was denounced as Jewish by a neighbour and sent to Auschwitz where she was killed
Thanks.
I couldn’t find anything much, so really appreciate your answers and cites.