Jean-Marie Lustiger said: “To become a Christian I did not reject my Judaism”

Masha Leon blogs.forward.com “The Jewish Cardinal” (“Le Metis de Dieu”), the 2012 French film shown at the New York Film Festival, is a fascinating puzzler. “To become a Christian I did not reject my Judaism” is the mantra of Jewish-born Aaron Lustiger — intelligently portrayed by Laurent Lucas — who converted at 14, and as Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, almost ascended to the Papacy. The film, by director Ilan Duran Cohen, is a post mortem for a son of an Orthodox father, a survivor of Auschwitz, who never came to terms with his son’s Catholic conversion. Befriended by Polish-born Pope John Paul II, their ecclesiastical exchanges include a surrealistic vignette when the Pope invites him to open-air swim-a-deux in his private Vatican swimming pool as their aides look on. Nicknamed “the Bulldozer,” Lustiger —moving up in rank and position — challenges sclerotic Vatican obstinacy, seeks outreach and is constantly defending his religious duality, which rankles both the church and the Jewish community...  “I am always humbled when I am in a synagogue,” said Cardinal O’Connor who offered a whimsical warning to Cardinal Lustiger: “When I was supposed to speak at a church — the church burned down. This lecture was to have taken place at New York’s Central Synagogue — and that burned down. to read more: blogs.forward.com