FRANCE: France bade farewell to Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger yesterday in a ceremony that mixed prayers from his Jewish roots with the rites of the Catholic Church, a faith to which he converted during the second World War.
A cousin of the late archbishop of Paris, Arno Lustiger, read the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead said in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, at the start of the ceremony outside Notre Dame Cathedral in central Paris.Jonas Moses-Lustiger read Psalm 113 in Hebrew and French, special to both Jews and Catholics.
A large crowd had gathered in silence under overcast skies in front of a packed cathedral.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy interrupted his summer holiday in the United States to lead political figures at the service but was scheduled to return for a meeting with US president George Bush today.
Jewish religious and community leaders and dignitaries from other religions also attended the funeral, conducted by Cardinal Lustiger's successor as Archbishop of Paris, Andre Vingt-Trois, and a message from Pope Benedict was read out.
Cardinal Lustiger's coffin was borne into the cathedral by six priests and was laid to rest in the archbishop's crypt at Notre Dame in line with tradition.
A casket containing earth from the Monastery of St Georges Kosiba near Jericho and the garden on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem was placed with his coffin.