Lustiger
He's too old. Isn't he 83? The cut of age is 80.
Jean-Marie Lustiger, 78
Retired archbishop of Paris
Jean-Marie Lustiger was born in the French capital on Sept. 17, 1926, of parents who were Polish Jews and had emigrated to France at the beginning of the century.
During the Nazi occupation his parents were deported and his mother died in the concentration camp of Auschwitz in 1943. The young Jean-Marie was spared because he was taken in by a family in Orleans.
Through contact with them he was converted to Catholicism and was baptized Aug. 25, 1940, in the chapel of the bishop's residence where 20 years later he would be the pastor.
He studied at the Montaigne Lyceum in Paris, then in Orleans, and later at the Sorbonne. In the years of university studies, he was an active member of the Young Christian Students.
After working for a year as a mechanic in Decazenville in the southwest of France, he entered the Carmelite Seminary in Paris. He earned a degree from the Catholic Institute in theology and a licentiate in letters and in philosophy from the Sorbonne. He was ordained a priest April 17, 1954.
As chaplain of students, he gave assistance in spiritual renewal at Richelieu Center. In 1969, he was called to direct the Parish of St. Jeanne de Chantal.
In November 1979, John Paul II appointed him bishop of Orleans. Episcopal ordination was conferred that Dec. 18.
In February 1981 he took over the post of archbishop of Paris. He also served as ordinary for Eastern-Rite faithful in France without ordinaries of their own. He was elevated to cardinal in 1983.
He was president delegate to the 1st Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops, in 1991. He retired as archbishop of Paris in February.
Curial membership:
* Secretariat of State (second section)
* Eastern Churches, Bishops, Clergy, Institutes of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic Life (congregations)