France bade farewell to Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger on Friday in a ceremony that mixed prayers from his Jewish roots with the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, a faith to which he converted during World War Two.
In a move reflecting his Polish Jewish origins, the Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish, was read at the start of the ceremony outside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris by a cousin.His coffin was then carried into the cathedral by six priests for the funeral mass attended by thousands of mourners, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who broke into his holiday in the United States to attend.
Lustiger, who died on Sunday aged 80, took refuge in Catholic boarding schools during the 1940-1944 Nazi occupation of France. His mother died in the Auschwitz death camp.
Lustiger's Jewish-Catholic heritage was omnipresent throughout the service, mourners paying tribute to him as a symbol of reconciliation and inter-faith dialogue.
"In fidelity to his origins, he contributed in a particularly significant way to fraternal dialogue between Christians and Jews," Pope Benedict said in a message.
At the late cardinal's request, a marble plaque inside the cathedral will bear the inscription: "I was born a Jew. I received the name of my paternal grandfather Aron. Christian by faith and by baptism, I remained a Jew, as did the Apostles."
Cabinet ministers, Jewish leaders and dignitaries from other faiths also attended the funeral, which was conducted by Lustiger's successor as Archbishop of Paris, Andre Vingt-Trois.
A large crowd followed the service on a giant screen set up outside Notre Dame on a cold, overcast day.
Vingt-Trois said Lustiger's life reflected more than the turmoil of the 20th century and the "murderous hunt of the Nazis".
"He put in place the decisive acts in the development of relations between Jews and Christians that perhaps only he could have undertaken," Vingt-Trois said.
As the cathedral bells tolled, Lustiger's coffin was borne into the archbishop's crypt, where he was to be laid to rest with the soil from the Monastery of St Georges Kosiba near Jericho and the Mount of Olives that overlooks Jerusalem.
Active in Christian student organisations after the war, Lustiger was a top theology student at the Catholic Institute in Paris before becoming a parish priest in Paris known for hard-hitting sermons which were published as a book.
Lustiger was close to the late Pope John Paul II, who appointed him archbishop of Paris in 1981, one of the highest positions for a convert to the French Catholic church. He was elevated to cardinal two years later.
