The Vatican:Pope Benedict praised Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger yesterday as a "great figure" in the French church who had spent his life trying to improve relations between Jews and Christians.
Cardinal Lustiger, a French Jew who converted to Catholicism and became Archbishop of Paris, died of cancer on Sunday aged 80.
"A man of faith and dialogue, he generously worked to promote ever more fraternal relations between Christians and Jews," the Pope said in a telegram.
The son of Polish refugees, Cardinal Lustiger was hidden in Catholic boarding schools during the 1940-1944 Nazi occupation of France, and he converted from Judaism at this time. His mother died in the Auschwitz death camp. His appointment as archbishop in 1981 gave him one of the highest ever positions attained by a convert to the French Catholic church.
- (Reuters)