Jewish Childhood Friend of Pope John Paul II, Jerzy Kluger, Dies (VIDEO)
Jerzy Kluger, a lifetime friend of the late Pope John Paul II, died on Dec. 31 in Rome clinic of complications with bronchitis following a long-time battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Kluger, a Polish-born Jew, was the last of the remaining childhood friends of the late pontiff who died in 2005, and he was a major influence on the former Pope’s relations with Jews during his papacy.
The boyhood friends met when Kluger was only five years old in their native Poland. Kluger was a year younger than John Paul II, who was born Karol Wojtyla.
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As boys, Kluger and Wojtyla grew up in nearby houses in the small town of Wadowive and spent their childhood playing soccer, hiking, swimming, and assisting each other with their schoolwork.
Their lives took different paths and separated them: Kluger survived the Holocaust after being sent to a gulag in Siberia, and Wojtyla went on to become the Pope. However, the two reunited in 1965 and worked together to revolutionize strained relations between Catholics and Jews.
Upon the death of John Paul II, Kluger shared with The Associated Press memories of his longtime friend’s call for social justice.
“Even when he was a young boy, he would already show great concern for social equality, especially for the Jews,” Kluger told the news agency in 2005.
Kluger recalled an incident as a child at a church in Poland when a parishioner, who recognized him as a Jew, asked the child why he had entered the church.
When Wojtyla heard the question he responded, “Aren’t we all God’s children?”
John Paul II became the first pope to visit a synagogue and in 1988 issued an official “act of repentance” for the “errors and failures of… sons and daughters of the church” during the Holocaust.
The Christian Post Daily Report 01.03.12
