Original subtitles

Goodness!

THE JEWISH CARDINAL

Shit!

- Sorry, my moped wouldn't start. - The nuncio's waiting.

Next time, take the metro.

Your helmet.

Father Lustiger.

I am sorry, I was absorbed in my Hebrew lesson.

A difficult language. Have a seat, my son.

I know you want to be a priest in Jerusalem,

but the Church has other plans for you.

A new parish after 10 years in St-Jeanne?

No. The Pope has named you Bishop of Orléans.

- Pardon me? - Father Lustiger,

John Paul II has chosen you to succeed Monsignor Riobé.

You can obviously turn it down.

Surely the Pope doesn't know me.

I mean... Does the Holy Father know who I am?

John Paul II knows

you were baptized in 1940, in Orléans precisely.

How old were you?

Fourteen. Honestly, I was convinced that...

having been born Jewish excluded me from the French episcopacy.

Who could have imagined a Polish pope?

Shall I sign there?

Do you realize what that means?

How unlike his flock can a shepherd be?

- What a surprise! - What are you doing here, Fanny?

If you came more often, you'd know your dad's hired me.

- I left my fiancé. - Good riddance.

Not because he's a goy, but because he's stingy.

I'm not going to Jerusalem, Dad.

Too many Jews over there?

Sorry, bad joke.

I have a better one. I've been named bishop.

- Are you kidding? - It's true.

- Bishop of what? - Orléans.

Unbelievable! You've come full circle.

You say nothing, Dad?

Fanny, can you close the shop?

Why would the Pope choose Aaron for a bishop?

To show that a good Jew is a converted Jew?

Traitor's reward, is that what you mean?

Why did I come here?

Stop it. Your son's free to choose his faith.

He's no longer Aaron, but Jean-Marie. Accept that.

Look at you two.

You should see a shrink.

You don't know the Poles the way I do.

You fled the pogroms before Jean Paul II was born.

You know what we say among us?

The Poles suck anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk.

That shows we also talk bullshit.

The Poles...

You have a new TV!

For almost a year.

The picture is great on the new screens.

I saw the Pope in Poland as if I'd been there.

Shall we change the subject?

I'll cook some pasta, you set the table.

Did you see John Paul II's mass at Auschwitz?

A million Catholics.

Priests dressed up as deportees

and a seven-meter-tall cross right by the crematoria.

We said we'd change the subject.

Not a word about the Jewish Holocaust in Auschwitz.

Quite a nerve!

Before the mass, Jean Paul II read the Hebrew inscription on a stela:

"The people whose children were doomed to extermination."

And that's enough for you.

Your mother was murdered in Auschwitz.

Aaron, you can't forgive that fast.

Even if you don't want to be Jewish, even if you're a shameful Jew.

What have we become, Son?

What have we become?

The Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ.

- Hello, how are you? - Fine.

- The usual, please. - Here you are.

- You've forgotten Pilote. - Sorry.

Thank you and congratulations.

- Thank you, but on what? - Check that.

- Guillaume Bussières, please. - Is he expecting you?

The Vatican mentioned my conversion!

Yes, in Rome's communiqué on your nomination.

Please, sit down.

A priest of Jewish origin

to be mitered where he was baptized. Great story.

Why do you say "of Jewish origin"?

Your parents are Jewish.

You shouldn't have fed my life to your readers.

- Aren't your parents Jewish? - Yes, just like me. Put this down.

"Father Jean-Marie Lustiger affirms that he remains Jewish."

What do you mean by that?

By becoming a Christian, I renounced nothing.

I remain Jewish.

Like the Apostles and Jesus.

Your seminary colleagues were unaware of your conversion.

So were your parishioners. I spoke to them.

Why?

I didn't reveal it, but didn't hide it either.

I considered it a private matter.

You've changed your mind?

I want to set the record straight.

The Church will love that. What did you say about your identity

when campaigning for promotion?

I undertook no campaign to become a bishop.

I'm no fool.

I did not desire my fate. It came upon me.

Designs of Providence maybe?

What I hate about the so-called Catholic press

is you're ashamed of the dogma.

Your reference is the Little Red Book.

But I, Mr. Bussières, firmly believe in Providence!

I'm convinced God has willed my nomination.

I am a living provocation that compels reflection on Christ.

Ninety-nine...

One hundred.

For decades, I've thought about the Church's problems,

angry with those at the top,

who are clueless about modern life. Now I'm afraid of leading a diocese.

- You know what your nickname is? - Lulu.

Your parishioners are calling you Monsignor Bulldozer.

- Bulldozer? - Yes.

I quite like that.

How did they react to my origins?

They always found you eccentric. That didn't shock them.

- You didn't forget me, did you? - Of course not.

This is Father Julien Cramiel.

This is Fanny, my cousin.

Will you excuse us?

Lay the Mass leaflets on the pews, will you?

The same look in the eyes.

Father Julien is cute.

Show some respect! He's a priest.

My first time backstage in the Catholic Church.

- I need your help. - Seriously?

Can you persuade my father to attend my consecration?

He went to your conversion.

Orléans brings back bad memories. Why do you want him there?

You called me for that?

It may be the most beautiful day in my life.

I'd like it to mark my reconciliation with him.

Hence the statements about your unwavering Jewishness.

"I am Jewish, I remain Jewish..."

I poured out my heart.

I'm sick of being an orphan. My father's rejection gnaws at me.

Listen,

your father reads every article about you.

He's secretly very proud of you.

You've been pretty successful in your field.

You had to say that, didn't you?

- My nose! - Look.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you. Thanks be to God.

Go in the joy and peace of Christ.

- You'll stay in our hearts. - And you in mine.

- I'm so sad you're leaving. - Don't be.

- Come back to see us. - I will. Come to Orléans as well.

- God go with you. - Thank you, and with you.

- What's this, Ludovic? - A present, your Renault 5.

A car for me?

We all clubbed together.

A car's too much, I can't accept it.

A bishop can't be seen on a moped.

Control your temper at the wheel, Monsignor Bulldozer.

First, he'll learn to drive. Then the temper...

- Don't jew up the Gospels. - Heretic!

Get your people to accept responsibility

for the death of our Lord.

- Stop it. Get out. - Monsignor Lefebvre hails you...

Okay, out! Enough!

Out of here!

Get out!

Vroom! Thank you for the car.

Hello, thank you very much.

"By our apostolic power,

we name and appoint you

Bishop of Orléans. John Paul II."

What name have you chosen?

Jean-Marie.

Jean-Marie, what do you ask of the Church?

- Baptism. - Why?

I want to become a full Christian.

It's temporary, Charles.

At his age, I had my Bar Mitzvah.

We choose you as bishop.

I baptize you

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Have you come to confess, Mr. Bussières?

Your consecration was beautiful!

Very impressive.

- Good-bye now. - What about the reception?

Your father's tired.

He always has to spoil it. He can't help it.

He came, didn't he?

You know what nags me?

Would I be a cleric if Dad were more tolerant?

The prefect wants to see you.

I'll be right there.

Don't forget us. Come see us in Paris.

Of course I will.

- Monsignor Lustiger? - Yes.

Hello, Monsignor Lustiger. I'm Father Brosolo.

His Holiness is expecting you.

I was looking forward to meeting you, my son.

These shoes give me wings.

Sit down.

Those little Italian priests who smell of cologne

lack a bit of humor, don't they?

The word of the Pope is infallible.

Not yet for them.

They're teaching me to act as a pope.

I am sure you like pierogis, Jean-Marie.

My mother's were unbeatable.

- I'm not walking too fast, am I? - No, Holy Father.

Over this way.

I can't eat anything more, thank you.

It was delicious. I've drunk enough for tonight.

You remind me of dear Jerzy Kluger.

Kluger?

My childhood friend. We lived at the same building

in Wadowice.

He often invited me to celebrate Shabbat at his place.

Did you make me a bishop because I'm a convert?

Your stamina, intellectual capacity, liturgical inventiveness...

reached my ears.

No one remains indifferent to you, Jean-Marie.

But you haven't answered my question.

I will and that's too bad for you.

I was saving this conversation for tomorrow

when we'd have known each other better.

I expected the Jewish priest story would cause a stir in France.

Not so much

and not the one you caused yourself.

Your provocation nearly led us to a schism with Monsignor Lefebvre.

"I remain Jewish" is no provocation.

I did not appoint you to sow confusion in the Church of France.

If you wanted a doormat, you got the wrong man.

A doormat?

As in, a rug for wiping your shoes.

You're mistaking diplomacy

for hypocrisy, Jean-Marie.

You have to learn diplomacy,

because you must help me restore Jesus' place in this society

which has lost faith.

Do you realize how powerful

the newspapers, the radio and the TV are?

When you're from the East, you find that miraculous.

Hello, Father Brosolo.

To French intellectuals, believing in God is obscurantism.

Little salon communists like to shout that God is dead.

They only worship Reason, with a capital "R."

Those idiots don't realize

their reason led to all 20th-century crimes.

Hitler and Stalin are symptoms of the same disorder:

the absence of God.

Wherever reason forsook God,

the forces of death were unleashed on man.

Both Hitler and Stalin.

For those behind the Iron Curtain, that's an obvious fact.

I caused a little scandal in the gardens of Castel Gandolfo.

One mustn't change anything in the Vatican. I need to exercise.

You know swimming is excellent for your health.

Look.

The object of the scandal.

I had it built!

A pool is cheaper than a conclave

and the Church wants to keep me alive, right?

The water's cold, Holy Father.

Not for a Pole, my son.

Catch that.

How about a race, my son?

One, two, three, go!

I won!

You're a good swimmer, my son.

Write a memorandum about the Church of France.

Me?

For this job, I'll exempt you from diplomacy, my brother.

In this instance.

"The Church of France is heading for its fall"...

A rather brutal start.

It takes much more to shake the Pope.

I've never seen you so admiring.

I identify entirely with his ideas. This pontiff embraces the world.

Human rights are at the heart of his magisterium.

He's both simple and cultivated, conservative and creative,

authoritative but subversive. Unclassifiable.

We'll have to be up to the task.

"The Church of France is heading for its fall, if it remains torn

between its right and left wings."

Progressionists and fundamentalists.

Right. "Those political trends must be marginalized urgently."

Without Lefebvre's fanatics and the leftist Catholics,

no one's left.

Unless we root out those currents, which hold us hostage,

the Church will disappear.

Our only truth... our only strength, Julien,

is the Gospel.

I thought

human rights were the priority.

The Gospel is about human rights.

Say that to the secularists who shout "Down with the Cloth."

And to the feminists, who deplore the Vatican's stand

on abortion and contraception.

How will you reconcile the France of saints with that of human rights?

Back to basics, new approach. We'll make ourselves heard

beyond the restricted world of churchgoers.

We'll make people love us.

John Paul II is right:

we must enter the age of communication.

Read that back.

Shift to second gear.

Good.

Last year, 27 priests in my diocese

quit priesthood to marry.

Keep right!

- Those who stayed will soon retire. - I said right!

What's that moron doing? Did you see that?

You'll makes us crash, Monsignor!

Left here?

Left, yes.

Indicators and rearview mirror.

Why are there two?

One's for me! You look into that one.

Let's find out the results of the US election.

The TV is faster than my nuncio in Washington.

Come on.

We share with Mr. Reagan

at least two things in common.

He hates communists, and he was an actor.

A movie star leading America and a former stage actor in the Vatican!

Times change, Holy Father.

Jean-Marie Lustiger got that, don't you think?

His memorandum is pessimistic.

The demise of the Church of France isn't imminent.

But it's a sharp and interesting paper.

The Bishop of Orléans is a good recruit.

He has fervor, panache,

the spirit of challenge and the passion to act.

The strength of the converted is having chosen their faith.

I don't know him in person, but...

rumor has it that he's temperamental.

Monsignor Decourtray,

do you think the Church of France

needs one more doormat?

- Holy smoke! - It's a priest!

- Are you in trouble, Father? - I don't know.

Cylinder head gasket, oil...

The next garage is miles away. We'll drive you.

I wouldn't say no to that.

Would you have a cigarette?

- We've run out. - Tough luck, Father.

Hey, I saw you.

On the local news.

That's our bishop.

Every day at 6:00 p.m., I say Mass at the bishopric chapel.

They wouldn't let us in.

But I've abolished private chapels.

All believers are welcome.

Will you come?

What's your name?

- Michel. - Do you believe in God, Michel?

- I don't go to church often. - Why not?

The Sunday suit, the oldies...

That's a bit square.

"A bit square"...

How about only youngsters?

Thousands of youngsters from the whole world gathered to pray.

You'll make us do anything! Even Woodstock.

Christian Woodstock.

Sounds boring.

Come on, Father. Let's go.

Bishop of Orléans.

- Lulu... - You have a smoke?

- No... - I have some in my office.

Wait, wait...

What?

The Bishop of Dijon has been waiting for you.

We meet at last.

I'll leave you now.

I don't look presentable.

Don't worry, I should have let you know I was coming.

I have the honor to be the Holy Father's messenger,

who asked me to be quick and discreet.

- Go ahead, you worry me. - No reason to worry.

Jean-Marie Lustiger,

the Holy Father has chosen you as the new Archbishop of Paris.

I've been here for barely a year.

Cardinal Marty's succession is delicate.

By appointing you, His Holiness wants to show French bishops

all his attention for their Church.

The Pope has got a nerve!

- He hesitated a long time. - A long time?

He's a man who hastens slowly.

He prayed a great deal before making this decision.

Your nomination is the fruit of his prayers.

So he said.

- Cigarette? - No, thank you.

Archbishop of Paris...

It's as if the crucifix had suddenly put on the yellow star.

"One thing I ask from the Lord, this I seek:

to dwell in his house all the days of my life

to gaze on the Lord's beauty and visit his temple."

Thank you for coming, Your Excellency.

- Good luck. - See you very soon.

Mr. Chief Rabbi of France.

Actually, this is my successor, René Samuel Sirat.

Hello. You must be Father Julien.

Indeed. Welcome.

The Archbishop will see you now.

You want one?

If I got it right, Rabbi Kaplan, this is your last official visit.

I am particularly touched.

This visit is no calendar coincidence.

I didn't want to quit public life

without asking you, on behalf of our community,

to stop proclaiming yourself Jewish

and Christian at every interview.

It was a pleasure to meet you.

Rabbi Kaplan, I'm as Jewish as you.

All my relatives were murdered in Nazi camps.

One is either Jewish or Christian, Monsignor.

Not both.

I won't deny my ancestors.

I won't renounce my parents to please you.

I met your father at Liberation.

The poor man was in despair over your conversion.

He asked me to help him to have it nullified.

It was a real pleasure.

You were born in Algeria.

Yes, in Bône. Now Annaba.

You're the first Sephardi Chief Rabbi of France.

I am the first Jewish Archbishop of Paris.

- As pioneers, I hope we'll get along. - I'm sure we will.

I really like a debate. For instance,

I don't think you're a pioneer.

I'd say an exception, instead.

But I'm taking up your time.

- How is he? - Like yesterday.

The nurse is on her way.

I'll call you later.

- Have you been here long? - I've just arrived.

What are you laughing at, Dad?

- The joke about you. - About me?

Fanny told you?

Do you know why the Chief Rabbi is a Sephardi?

No. Why?

Because the archbishop is an Ashkenazi.

Jean-Marie...

I didn't give you that name.

- You chose it. - It wasn't against you.

Jean-Marie...

Will you get me your mother's picture?

She was beautiful.

Gisèle was rounded up...

while I was looking for a safe place for you.

I know, Dad.

She insisted on staying in Paris working at the shop

while you were in Orléans.

You should rest, Dad.

I know all that.

You know nothing at all.

After the war, when I tried to stop you joining the seminary,

you threw in my face that I had wanted to save my own hide,

that I had abandoned your mother...

and that you were still alive

thanks to the Christians,

not your father.

I didn't forget anything.

I failed to protect my wife and son. That's true.

Every day I regret not having died in your mother's place.

We say those things because we hurt, we are young,

we are stupid. Forget all that. I didn't mean it.

You do mean it a little.

No, Dad.

I've never been a believer...

but I want a Jewish burial.

And I want my only son

to say Kaddish for me.

Aaron...

will you say the mourners' prayer for your father?

Congratulations, Mr. Editor in Chief.

I was going to send you a note.

- You can take off your jacket. - I don't mind the heat.

I didn't request this interview as the editor of my newspaper,

but as the representative of the Catholic press.

- Gosh! - I'll get straight to the point.

The Archdiocese of Paris is usurping our role.

You have obtained a radio frequency.

Should you be spending the offerings on a community radio?

French clergy between the green and the gay radios?

Please, limit yourself to charity.

I don't intend to neglect our charity work.

But why limit myself to that?

A radical change is happening

in the audiovisual landscape.

The State is liberalizing FM radio. We can't miss out on that.

But you have no skills in communication.

Nor do you in Catholicity.

I will establish my radio.

It's a major evangelical duty to me.

Or an expression of your devouring ambition?

How far will you go?

A weekly program.

Your feedback on my performance will be very welcome.

I have an interview now with the communist paper.

Our priests must be put in tune

with a secularized and urban world.

Am I boring you? Priest training is crucial!

You keep moving... I can't digest the brain fritters I had at noon.

My guilty pleasure.

Very bad for cholesterol, anything deep-fried.

More than a priest shortage, we must admit

that the Church of France

suffers from the mediocre training of its clergy.

What is it?

I must speak to Monsignor Lustiger.

Your Excellency.

Bad news?

My father has died.

Could we resume this conversation later?

- My condolences. - Thank you.

Was your father religious?

That's better.

Otherwise...

his burial...

in your situation, you understand?

A shepherd can't be too unlike his herd.

You've already told me that.

I wish circumstances were different. I was very fond of Uncle Charles.

Who are those two guys?

Cops. There was a bomb scare at the archbishopric.

I found no obituary in the papers. Didn't you see to it?

Recite the Kaddish, please.

But there's no minyan.

There must be 10 men to say Kaddish. You know that.

Stop it, Fanny. My father wasn't religious.

You are! Won't you say Kaddish for your father?

- I said Kaddish inside. - You hypocrite!

- Stop it. - Hypocrite!

No scene!

- Get lost then. - Try to understand!

I'm suffering as much as you, if not more.

You, you, you...

It's all about you. You hurt your father till the very end!

I'll never see you again.

You're listening to Cathédrale de Paris.

Coffee. And next month's program schedule.

Yes sir...

By the way, has CBS given an answer?

Where did you put the file for the Americans?

It's there, right before your eyes.

CBS wants to send a TV crew next week, but I'd put it off.

They want a success story, not a depressive workaholic.

I'm in mourning. Can you understand that?

Take a break, Lulu.

Go away for a few days. It's getting difficult for everyone.

Rome - April 1983

Is it far, Karol?

Aren't you happy to escape this synod a few minutes?

You mustn't strain yourself. You're not fully recovered.

It's too early for that tour in South America.

You're a real Jewish mother to me.

Come.

Look, little brother.

What creature is that?

The Popemobile.

A wonderful machine designed by great engineers

to enable me to see and be seen

in complete safety.

Bulletproof glass and armored steel.

And you don't think that's a bit of a freak show?

I may look like a clown,

but I'll no longer be a shooting range target.

Give me a hand.

That little Turkish terrorist who put a bullet in me

was controlled by the communist special services.

I suspected it before the investigation results.

I bother them to the point of murder, Jean-Marie.

And you delight in that.

Of course I'm happy

when Jaruzelski and his Bulgarian friends

give signs of losing their minds.

With me as the Pope,

and dear Lech Walesa as Nobel Peace Prize winner,

that's quite a blow for them!

We need no firearms or tanks.

With the help of God, the communists will soon fall

like rotten fruit.

Europe split in two

is but an accident of history.

Very comfortable, panoramic view... You have the keys?

That's a shame, I'd love to drive it.

Shall we go back to the synod?

Wait.

I wanted to be alone with you to announce something.

I name you cardinal.

And I take you as my adviser.

I will soon place you on the Synod General Council.

You will become a papabile.

One day...

maybe a Jew will be the clown in the freak show car.

You are a free man, extraordinarily free,

spiritually free...

but you give me too much, Karol.

I give you...

knowing you'll give back to the Church 100 times more.

I practice good politics, my brother.

The Church offers a realistic utopia,

which John Paul Il calls "Civilization of Love, "

That was Cardinal Lustiger's comment.

Next on our program, today's guest: Mr. Théo Klein,

lawyer and the new president of the CRIF,

Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions.

In a few moments.

Very pleased to meet you, Mr. Klein.

I am giving a reception on Wednesday evening.

- Our radio's anniversary. - I'm afraid I can't come.

I'll be away.

You're thinking: "I won't go to this convert's house."

Mr. Klein, quick.

Sit down, please.

This is Radio Cathédrale de Paris.

I'm here with Mr. Klein, our guest today.

Jean-Marie, Mr. Klein insisted on seeing you.

I wanted to clear up that terrible misunderstanding.

I consider major choices a matter of personal conscience.

Sit down, Mr. Klein.

When I'm tired I lose my temper easily.

You spoke about "Civilization of Love"?

John Paul II does. I still have a long way to go.

I don't dislike Christians. I married one.

I need some advice.

If I can.

I've been asked to go to Poland.

Should I go? I swore never to visit the country of our extermination.

Why do you ask me?

You're the first Jew I've seen in a long time.

How could I go to Poland and avoid Auschwitz, where my mother died?

Am I to answer the cardinal or the Jew who lost his mother?

They're the same man.

In France, some are questioning

the reality of the Holocaust.

Faurisson says only lice were gassed in Auschwitz.

Deniers manage to find gullible ears.

We must defend the memory of our dead!

Go to Auschwitz, cousin, but in plain clothes.

Why plain clothes?

As a Jew who lost his mother, not as John Paul II's cardinal.

It'll be less difficult to manage.

Nothing is difficult to manage between John Paul II and me.

Auschwitz - June 1983

Turn that music off!

Lulu, you're scaring our kind seminarian.

I wanted to come alone.

You had to insist!

Was it good, Lustiger?

Do you know what a Jew is?

I think so.

Do you know any?

Maybe.

They're not people, they're filthy rats!

Look.

We'll kill them all on midsummer night.

- All of them? - Of course.

Men, women, children. We have to.

That's our big secret, Lustiger.

Here, you can touch it.

How odd that the Jewish Pavilion should be locked!

Everything's odd here.

Why must this pavilion be opened by the caretaker?

Visitors don't usually come here and we forgot to open it today.

Why don't they come here?

Two-thirds of them are Polish. They're not concerned by it.

He got the wrong key. He'll be right back.

Only one Jewish building?

Like there's one Belgian and one Danish.

So for you,

Jews and Danes suffered the same fate?

I think the Jewish building was opened after the Danish one.

When was it opened?

I don't know.

The communist authorities handled it.

Ask the Archbishop, maybe he knows.

The communist authorities don't seem interested in the Holocaust.

Holocaust?

You don't know the Holocaust?

Gisèle Lustiger, murdered in Auschwitz on February 13, 1943.

Gisèle Lustiger, murdered in Auschwitz on February 13, 1943.

Aren't we going to have a rest?

I must take you to Nowa Huta Church before dinner with Cardinal Macharski.

You don't have to come along.

I'll be fine.

Monsignor, the French want to fly to Paris straightaway.

But why?

No idea. Lustiger hasn't spoken since Auschwitz.

And Cardinal Decourtray?

He didn't like the frescoes in St. Maximilian's Chapel.

He says we still represent the Jews as deicides.

I thought Lustiger was the convert.

I must go or I'll miss my flight.

I am the convert. Thank you for your hospitality.

It was a necessary trip.

I'm glad to hear your voice.

My father was right: that country is crazy.

Kristof is smart and educated.

Yet he doesn't know the Holocaust! Incredible!

How about a statement about the Polish denial?

If I, the Jewish cardinal, denounce the lies about Auschwitz,

I'll start a polemic.

So what?

I don't want to put Karol in trouble.

Poland is the Pope's country.

Hello. You landed early.

Where's the chapel?

First floor, I think.

- Follow me, Albert. - Why?

The red one. Wait for me.

Father, I know you aren't my confessor.

Will you accept my confession, Albert?

Go ahead.

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

I was unable to give thanks to God in Auschwitz.

It was impossible for me to say the Lord's Prayer.

Why, my son?

My mother would have hated me to honor her memory that way.

The Kaddish didn't cross my lips either.

Does my life revolve

around my having been a 14-year-old Jew in 1940?

What do you mean?

I've always been an immigrants' son who knew he was Jewish,

belonging to a community persecuted only because of human cruelty.

But when I got back from Berlin in 1937,

I knew the Nazis were going to exterminate us.

I knew it. At home, no one believed

that child back from his exchange trip.

Unbelievable.

But I couldn't sleep.

In Orléans, the lady who took me in couldn't reassure me.

Like many Christians then,

she deemed it a duty to convert the terrified Jew

left in her care by his parents.

Were you forced to convert?

No, absolutely not.

I was scared. I wanted to hide and escape the horror.

And the lady was elated to see me embrace Christianity.

But I had a genuine spiritual experience.

I knew I would cause my parents great pain,

not lightheartedly.

At 14?

What kind of spiritual experience was it?

How can I describe the peace that took me over

the first time I entered the Sainte Croix Cathedral?

I found the God of love in a time of hatred.

When I converted, I felt the most Jewish of Jews.

I had acknowledged Christ, Israel's Messiah.

I felt the most Christian of Christians

because I am Jewish, like Jesus.

And yet in Auschwitz, Albert,

I wasn't able to say either the Kaddish or the Lord's Prayer.

God, forgive me.

Thank you for coming.

- A girl or a boy? - A boy. Bless him.

Jesus said: "If anyone wants to come with me,

he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."

If anyone wants to come with me

He must deny himself, take up his cross

And follow me

He'll be annoyed if I interrupt his prayers.

I'll give him a good reason to be annoyed.

Pray with me, Albert.

I just got back from Brussels.

I came via Paris because I had to see you.

What's the matter?

You know the organization Aid to the Church in Distress.

Far right, yes. So what?

It made an appeal to its generous donors with a strange slogan:

"Your gift to the Pope, a convent in Auschwitz."

A convent in Auschwitz?

The gift to the Pope is supposed to follow on his efforts

to beatify Edith Stein.

- Carmelite gassed in Auschwitz. - And a convert.

A Jewish convert. There's the rub.

The convent is "a guarantee of the conversion of strayed brothers."

Usual reactionary chatter.

Read on, Lulu.

Eight nuns have settled in Auschwitz.

- The convent exists already? - For a year. In the old theater.

Where the Nazis stored gas to murder the Jews.

The Archbishop of Kraków didn't consult Jewish organizations

before blessing the creation of a convent

at that highly symbolic place.

- For once, I called Rome up. - You spoke to the Pope?

It's okay for him. He says the nuns pray for everyone.

That's a fact, they do pray for everyone.

A convent at the place where you could utter no prayer

in your mother's memory poses you no problem?

Your gift to the Pope, a convent in Auschwitz

Don't let me down, Lord.

Don't let me down.

I wrote to the apostolic nuncio in Paris

and he hasn't replied!

I'm outraged by his silence! Such contempt for our community!

I'd say "unease," Mr. Klein. Such a fuss over the convent!

He doesn't get your anger.

Unlike the goyim, you understand the Jews' anger.

The nuns pray for everyone!

I'll pray over your ashes.

No convent, church, temple or synagogue. Nothing!

Only the cemetery silence.

At that cursed place, the sky must remain empty.

What do you expect from me?

Petitions are pouring in at the Vatican.

Yet it remains obstinately mute.

Your Eminence,

the nuns must go away.

And the Pope listens to you.

I can arrange for you to meet the Holy Father.

But he refuses to intervene in matters of national churches.

No Jewish tearful supplication to the sovereign pontiff.

Why beg when it's our right?

Since 1979,

Auschwitz has been a UNESCO site, the symbol of Jewish genocide!

What do you want from me, Mr. Klein?

Get the Pope to arrange a negotiation between both parties.

The conflict must end.

- You can't be serious. - I am very serious.

It's time the Church considered us legitimate interlocutors.

As you know,

I've visited Auschwitz.

The museum bothers me much more

than nuns praying near the wall of execution.

The Church didn't have to encourage more denial.

If nothing is done, Catholic signs will proliferate,

and Auschwitz will be Christianized.

And in a few generations, no one will remember

that Jews were massacred there.

A Jewish and Christian Auschwitz is impossible.

If I may make a bad pun, you'll have to choose your camp.

Actually, no. Get out!

We got official authorization

to set up the convent. It's all legal.

We put up those unwelcoming signs to keep intruders away.

Journalists almost every day.

Even from America.

And sometimes, I hate to tell you, hostile demonstrations

by foreign Jews.

Why does our presence offend the Jews?

They're not particularly related to Auschwitz I.

They stayed on the other side.

In Birkenau, where there are train tracks.

Our pharmacy is made up of foreign donations.

But for us, the poor would get no medical treatment.

No free heath care in communism?

In this country there are no medicines.

The Poles lack everything.

Hello.

What are you working on?

He's renovating

the future infirmary.

You have to help the nuns,

Mr. Cardinal of Paris... The Jews cause them a lot of trouble.

Why do the Jews do that, my son?

Let's resume the tour.

Wait. Please translate, Father Kristof.

He spoke about compensation for Auschwitz victims.

He says the convent is just a pretext.

The Jews were sent by the Germans

to cause problems for the Polish,

and it's all about money.

No prayer, no spiritual retreat can ever redeem this place

if you don't respect the pain of the Jews.

No one contests that the Jews suffered.

But let's not forget everyone else's suffering.

In Poland, the Holocaust is still taboo half a century later.

Only the Jews went to Auschwitz with wives and children.

Only they were immediately killed and reduced to ashes.

Having to value such horrors as superior martyrdom drives me mad!

Jean-Marie, let's calm down.

If you establish the number of Jewish victims in Auschwitz,

that could be taken into account.

9 out of 10 victims. It's in any good history book.

- I will look into it. - François...

pack and go to the Holy Land.

In Jerusalem, visit the Yad Vashem memorial.

Then you will have the measure of what the Jews suffered in the war,

hidden way too long by the Polish.

Are you trying to tell me what to do?

We can't act like the communists and ignore what disturbs us.

I want to see that memorial.

We owe the truth to God.

- Not too rough? - I'll tell you. The petition?

- A coffee? - Lulu's on the next flight to Rome.

It's in 10 minutes.

I'll check the boarding gate.

Over a thousand Christian personalities:

Protestants, Catholics, many clerics...

They signed this ecumenical petition to transfer the nuns.

Your boarding pass, Jean-Marie. Gate B.

Over 1,000 signatures in no time at all.

- Any important people? - All we need.

It'll be very helpful.

I got the papers for you.

You have to hurry up, though.

- I should be coming with you. - It's a bit late now.

I didn't drop this case.

Théo Klein went to see you. And rightly so.

Your mission is to ensure respect for the Jews and the Shoah.

God wills it.

He's going with you, Lulu.

I'm off.

How would Catholics feel

if the Holy Sepulchre became a synagogue because it's in Israel?

I have nothing to do with that convent.

You're endangering Jewish-Christian relations.

That's not my intent.

Or why would I go to the Great Synagogue of Rome?

The 1st time a pope has visited a synagogue

since the 1st century of the Roman Catholic Church.

Do you realize?

That won't appease the children of the Holocaust.

I must recapture Auschwitz from the communists!

You're recapturing it from the Jews!

- You don't get it! - I no longer understand you.

Listen...

The communists voted a law

making Auschwitz the emblem of Poland's ordeal.

They turned it into the symbol of Polish patriotism.

The heart of the regime's propaganda.

For 40 years, they've been brainwashing school children,

who are forced to visit it.

That camp is a major strategic issue.

Why do you think I said Mass there

the first time I went back home as a pope?

Poland's political subtleties aren't known to the world.

Some Christians are outraged by that convent.

This case is a bomb!

You must defuse it.

The president of the CRIF has suggested negotiating.

It may lead nowhere, but the dialogue won't be broken,

and tensions will be eased.

Fine.

But I want utmost discretion

about the place and the subject of the meeting.

Do you hear?

No communication to the papers or the TV.

No publicity whatsoever.

If ever it leaks,

the Vatican mustn't seem involved. Do you commit to that?

I do.

You don't have to reach an immediate agreement.

Don't rush things.

The Jewish delegation mustn't have in its composition

former camp prisoners

nor Polish Jews.

The dialogue will be more peaceful, hence discreet.

No Polish Jew in the Catholic delegation either.

How about me, Holy Father?

You will report everything to me.

But keep a very low profile during negotiations.

Transparent.

No one should take advantage of that

to criticize me even more for making you my adviser.

If only you knew the things I hear.

The chairman of the Catholic delegation

will be Cardinal Decourtray.

Poland can't be left out of the negotiating table.

Give us Cardinal Macharski.

Geneva - 1986 Castle of Pregny

Macharski not being at the hotel worries me.

He's vital to this meeting.

- The Belgian cardinal. - I'm not blind!

No point getting worked up.

Hello, Cardinal.

- Is Macharski here? - No.

Come on in.

Albert, whatever happens, thanks for being who you are.

Welcome to the Castle of Pregny.

A beautiful residence.

Is it your home?

It's Edmond de Rothschild's Geneva mansion.

He has put it at our disposal.

Isn't Monsignor Macharski with you?

Not yet, he will be here soon.

You know everyone.

Mrs. Tullia Zevi,

Professor Ady Steg and the Chief Rabbi of France.

I am sorry we're so late.

You're here, that's what counts.

This way.

Praise be to God. We arrive safe and sound.

François, we were worried!

We thought our time was up in all those air pockets!

The plane was grounded many hours because of engine failure.

Your plane reflects the Polish regime. On its last legs.

Well done!

If the agreement to transfer the Carmelites is to be deferred,

let's decide now

the cessation of works in the old theater.

I request permission to speak.

Go ahead.

The Germans didn't only impose a reign of bloody terror on my country,

they undertook the massacre of Poland's elites

and the destruction of Polish culture.

What are you driving at?

The Polish tragedy was the purpose of Auschwitz

in the first two years of the camp.

That's what I am driving at.

Having established that, the convent's big room,

which isn't being renovated yet, will remain as it is

to mark the temporary stay

of the nuns.

Do you realize what that means?

That convent was a mistake.

We must correct it.

The chairman of the Yad Vashem welcomed me as a compatriot.

He speaks Polish as well as I.

He is from Lodz.

Thank you for making that trip to Jerusalem.

I didn't know, Jean-Marie.

Not that much.

I was overwhelmed by the terrible magnitude of the Shoah.

And all those trees planted in memory of the Righteous!

Peace on earth to men of good will.

Your Eminence, would you like some tea?

Do you have something merrier?

The Holy Father isn't allowed anymore.

Try not to tire him too long.

We can talk tomorrow.

No, sit down.

- So? - You won't have to intervene.

The delegations agreed to transfer the Carmelites

to a center for meeting and prayer

to be built at a reasonable distance from the camp.

When?

The nuns have two years to leave Auschwitz.

You must be happy.

The Cardinal of Kraków was splendid.

We owe this quick solution to him.

Macharski has just phoned me.

He had a hostile reception from his auxiliaries

and the director of the Carmelite convents.

He is in a very bad position.

He'll face some turbulence, then things will be fine.

He was confident.

Macharski is a liberal.

That's a minority current in the Church of Poland.

Plus, he has no backbone.

He has neither the means nor the guts

to impose the promises he made to the Jews.

The Church can't be perfidious.

He said it: the nuns will have to leave.

Poland will not accept that.

There will be turmoil.

Also on the Jewish side and the world over,

if the nuns don't leave Auschwitz.

Klein has told the foreign media about the Pregny agreement.

It should have remained secret, you committed to that.

Provided we reached no agreement, but we did!

When the communist Antichrist falters,

you only want to please the rabbis!

You're just an apostate for them.

They despise you, you know that!

You must be faithful to the Church and your pope!

How can you doubt that?

I haven't finished, Your Eminence.

I shall turn the other cheek.

The agreement cannot be honored.

Calm the Jews down

for as long as the Vatican and Poland need it.

I missed you, Fanny.

You look awful.

Books bring in more money than buttons?

Enough to pay you the shop rent. Why don't you cash my checks?

You've kept my father's old counters.

You're married?

No, why do you ask?

But I'm hungry. Will you take me to lunch?

We won't ask each other any questions.

Fine.

It's good to see you again.

That's my cousin.

- Nice to meet you. - And you.

Auschwitz - Summer 1988

The cross from the altar of the Pope's mass in Birkenau.

Our Pope's cross erected where the Nazis shot our fighters.

No one would dare touch it.

That would be doubly sacrilegious.

We'll put up a sign saying that our martyrs died at that spot.

Auschwitz - July 14, 1989

The Jews!

Call the police quickly.

What will we tell them?

We must reassure them.

I am beside myself.

Say the nuns will go, the Polish bishops ratified the decision.

The Church has given its word.

I wish I still believed in the Church's word.

You can tell them

the Bishop's authority remains uncontested,

so they will soon leave.

The theater west wall restored despite our agreement.

And the ultimate provocation: the orchard.

The Carmelites never meant to leave.

Those nuns ooze love for the dead Jews,

but overflow with contempt for the living ones.

A gigantic cross in the world's biggest Jewish cemetery.

Imagine the pain of our families, who lost relatives in Auschwitz.

Mr. Steg, I understand that, for Jewish people,

a convent and a cross in Auschwitz represents a permanent aggression.

We understand that.

Kind words aren't enough.

Four cardinals committed on behalf of the Church.

What will you do to force the nuns out next year?

We're facing administrative problems, Rabbi.

The Polish government has delayed some authorizations,

the new convent hasn't been built yet.

Why is the old theater still being renovated?

Why doesn't Cardinal Macharski object to that? He gave his word.

He is confronted with Polish opinion.

The nuns' departure may have to be put off.

There you go. It's hopeless.

"Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way;

yet thou hast found the life of thine hand;

therefore thou wast not discouraged." Isaiah 57.

Are you talking about your own discouragement?

Is the agreement in jeopardy?

We will need a few months, Mr. Klein.

The Church will keep its word.

About the Carmelites moving out?

About that indeed.

In Poland the Communist Party has summoned its members...

Don't blame the US Jews, but the Carmelites.

They had no intention to move.

Those idiots gave the Cardinal of Kraków a great excuse to back out.

What does your pope say?

- I don't know. - How come?

- He no longer answers my calls. - For how long?

The convent.

Monsignor Glemp, primate of Poland, stoops to making remarks

which, for many, amount to traditional local anti-Semitism.

He thinks the Jews have powerful media...

It's getting worse.

- Are you leaving? - I must do something.

Hello, Mr. Bulldozer.

It's a posthumous victory for Hitler.

Some coffee?

You've played with fire!

Rekindled anti-Semitism in Poland 50 years after the Shoah.

I'll no longer be the Vatican's court Jew.

No more of my conniving silence!

You're still mistaking hypocrisy for diplomacy.

And you, Poland's interests for the Church's.

Look at the outcome!

Everything's fine.

The men of Solidarnosc got a landslide election victory.

There's perestroika in the USSR.

They're talking about glasnost, transparency...

The communists will soon be gone.

So why don't you get the nuns out? You have no more excuses.

Heal the wound to the Jews' memory.

My father was right: your methods are indecent.

You're robbing us of our dead, Karol Wojtyla.

Edith Stein isn't a Christian martyr.

She wasn't gassed in Auschwitz as a Carmelite, but as a Jew!

A Jew like Gisèle Lustiger, my mother!

A Jew like you.

Yes!

Like you...

and like Jesus.

I am sorry I have made you suffer so much, my brother,

but it was necessary.

Last night, I dreamt that the Berlin Wall came down.

God sent me that appeasing vision.

That wall will fall.

That's what God wanted me to understand

before you paid me this visit. You are right.

It is the time to heal the wound inflicted on the Jews.

Come help me to write the edict

for the Carmelites to leave Auschwitz.

Abraham Myer, deported to Auschwitz in 1942.

David Muller, deported to Auschwitz in 1943.

Bella Listein, deported to Auschwitz in 1944.

Jean Lodenberg, deported to Auschwitz in 1942.

Annette Lutrenzic, deported to Auschwitz in 1942.

Gisèle Lustiger, deported to Auschwitz in 1943.

Otto Ludwig, deported to Auschwitz in 1943.

See you soon, Théo.

- Take care of yourself. - You too.

I'm moved that Charlotte came. Usually at her age...

I know. I'm lucky to have her.

I wasn't a good son.

Do you mind if I stay a while at my father's grave?

Not at all.

Though I lacked the courage to say Kaddish for him,

I'd like to have it said for me.

At a Jewish cemetery?

No, I want it said for me on Christian ground.

You got John Paul II to stand before the Wailing Wall, but that...

only in your dreams.

I wanted to embody Jewish and Christian reconciliation.

All my life,

I've tried to hold together both branches of the Testament.

Will priests and rabbis join in your fantasy?

They'll have to get along. It's my last wish.

I am God's mixed child.

"August 10, 2007.

At the threshold

of Notre-Dame,

the casket

of Jean-Marie Aaron Lustiger

stops

momentarily.

At the foot

of the Portal

of the Last Judgment,

where no one

ever heard it,

a young Jew

recites

the Kaddish.

Once the Hebrew prayer

is over,

the mass

starts."

This fiction is freely based on Cardinal Lustiger's life

Subtitles: Evaldo Medeiros