Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger served for many years as Archbishop of Paris (1981-2005). He studied literature and history at the Sorbonne, and at the Carmelite Seminary of the Institut Catholique de Paris, before his ordination as a priest in 1954. He was chaplain of the students at the Centre Richelieu (1954-1969), and parish priest in Sainte-Jeanne de Chantal in Paris (1969-1979). In 1979 he became Bishop of Orleans, and then Archbishop of Paris in 1981 and a cardinal in 1983. Cardinal Lustiger is the author of many books: his autobiographical testimony, Le Choix de Dieu (1987) - English translation in 1991 as Choosing God - Chosen by God, Osez croire, osez vivre, Dieu merci, les droits de l?homme, La dimension spirituelle de l?Europe, Nous avons rendez-vous avec l?Europe, Devenez dignes de la condition humaine, etc. In 1995 Lustiger was elected to the French Academy, where he took up his seat in 1996. Lustiger has played a major role in many key Vatican commissions and in Christian-Jewish dialogue within France and Europe. In October 20, 1998, he received at the Sutton Place Synagogue in New York (with the Chief Rabbi of Paris René-Samuel Sirat) the Nostra Aetate Award, given by the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding of the Sacred Heart University of Fairfield, Connecticut, USA.