Vatican cardinal honors Jewish convert, tells his own story

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — A Vatican cardinal has marked the 80th anniversary of the gas chamber killing of the Jewish-born Catholic convert Edith Stein. Cardinal Michael Czerny celebrated a Mass near the former Auschwitz death camp. He also told the story of his own family’s Jewish origins in the former Czechoslovakia and their fate under the Nazis. Czerny is one of cardinals most closely associated with Pope Francis’ pontificate. A Jesuit who ministered in El Salvador, Czerny heads the Vatican office responsible for Francis’ priority portfolios of migration, the environment, development and social justice. He said in his homily Tuesday that the anniversary of Stein’s killing forces the world to not forget.