By JPOST.COM STAFF
Former archbishop of Paris and adviser to Pope John Paul II Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger died Sunday at age 80.
Lustiger was born Jewish, the son of Polish immigrants to France. He was first exposed to Catholicism when he and his sister were sent away from Paris after the Nazi occupation, and later converted. Lustiger's mother was deported and died in Auschwitz.
The cardinal was a champion of interfaith relations and always asserted that he remained a Jew, a claim that was soundly rejected by Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. Lau said that Lustiger had "betrayed his people and his faith during the most difficult and darkest of periods."