Paris, France, Apr 16, 2019 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Father Pierre Amar was praying in Notre-Dame de Paris at 5 p.m. Monday evening to prepare spiritually for the Easter Triduum; hours later he was ringing the “funeral bells” at his parish to mourn the flames consuming the “mother of all the cathedrals in France.”
Hearing the bells, Amar’s parishioners came to their church in Versailles, to pray the rosary together as Notre-Dame burned.
“The Cathedral of Notre-Dame has a particular place in our hearts and in our history,” Father Amar told CNA April 16. “It is hard to find my words because the emotion is so great.”
“This morning at Mass, we prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary … ‘Mary, dry our tears’,” he said. “We are so sad; France is mourning its cathedral.”
Father Joseph Koczera was having dinner in Paris with fellow priests when he heard the news.
“We were all in shock,” he said. “We all felt a sense of despair, seeing images of the cathedral in flames and fearing that it would be completely destroyed.”
“I walked down to the Île de la Cité to join the many Parisians who were there watching the cathedral burn. What struck me when I arrived was the atmosphere of prayer and reflection: many were singing the Ave Maria in French, and many were kneeling in prayer,” Koczera, an American priest based in Paris, told CNA.
“Some were crying, but there was a palpable sense of Christian hope, a sense that this beloved church would be saved and would experience a kind of physical resurrection,” he said.
While greatly damaged, the main structure of Notre-Dame, including much of its interior vaulted ceiling remained intact as firefighters worked late into the night to put out the flames.
Father Pierre-Hervé Grosjean of the Archdiocese of Paris shared a photo revealing the extent of the damage to the main alter on Twitter April 16.
“Inside Notre-Dame de Paris, in the midst of rubble, the cross is there. Standing. It seems intact. Painful and luminous at the same time. Victorious over evil. Not far, Mary is there, her statue is always a witness. This image is worth all the homilies,” Grosjean reflected in French.
Another Parisian priest, Father Franck Derville wrote on Twitter, “140 years ago (April 16, 1879) died St. Bernadette of Lourdes, to whom the Virgin – #NotreDame – said: ‘I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the other.’”
Originally built between the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, the landmark cathedral in the French capital is one of the most recognizable churches in the world, receiving more than 12 million visitors each year.
“I think it’s difficult to sum up the importance of Notre-Dame de Paris in just a few words. It’s not just a tourist attraction; it’s a place of prayer, where ordinary people from all walks of life go each day for Mass or confession or simply to pray privately,” Father Koczera explained.
Father Amar summed up its importance, “I can say that Notre-Dame is France, and France is Notre-Dame.”
“The Cathedral of Paris is the witness of our history, not only the history of the Catholic Church in France, but the history of France,” Amar continued.
“For example, at the liberation of Paris in 1944 when the Americans came with the French army in Paris in August 1944, we had the Magnificat sung in the Cathedral of Paris,” he said.
“Notre-Dame is, in a way, the summit of Christendom or at least it symbolizes the 12th century — the century of cathedrals, the century of St. Thomas Aquinas. In a way I think this event, and I pray for this, should help us to become more aware of our Christen heritage and to realize that we all need conversion,” Father Carlos Hamel told CNA.
Father Hamel, who has lived in France for the past nine years, said that he is praying for this tragedy to “reawaken” the faith in France.
“I wouldn’t be surprised, really, that this happening just before the Triduum will cause more people coming to Mass next weekend,” Hamel said.
The Archdiocese of Paris announced April 16 that all of the Holy Week liturgies scheduled to occur Notre-Dame this week will occur in Saint Sulpice, the second largest church in Paris.
Saint Sulpice was also damaged by fire one month ago, a fire that the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe reported was started deliberately on its large wooden door.
Each of the priests commented that the Notre-Dame fire has encouraged a greater sense of unity throughout the country.
“Notre-Dame de Paris remains a potent national symbol for many French people, whether they are religious believers or not. It is telling that, in the hours after the fire started, political leaders and public figures from left to right and across the ideological spectrum were unanimous in declaring that the cathedral should be rebuilt and that no expense should be spared to make that happen,” Father Koczera commented.
“It seems that Notre-Dame de Paris remains a symbol that the people of France can unite around, regardless of their personal beliefs,” he added.
Father Amar that the event caused fellow countrymen to “discover our unity and human fraternity” at a time when the “climate in France is not so peaceful.”
The French priest said that as he walked along streets in the local Church in his collar Tuesday, many strangers approached him and said things like, “Father, we are with you,” and “I am not Catholic, but we are so touched for you, for France.”
“It gave me a lot of joy,” Amar reflected. “We lost an edifice, but we have discovered, this morning, the unity of our country.”
“Notre-Dame. It means ‘Our Lady,’ not ‘The Lady of France.’ Our Lady is for everybody – Christian people, believers, non-believers — everyone is welcome in the heart of Notre-Dame,” Amar said.
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Which “homosexuality” are they referring to? The sanitized for Western consumption, post-AIDS homosexuality where “gay marriage” is still largely “open marriage?” Or the inherently self-injurious “gay lifestyle” due to psychological and physical challenges to immunity (including substance abuse)even in the most accepting of cities, communities?
In the spirit of Aristotle will “gay awareness” include the actual facts/statistics?
Which one is a “misread” of Scripture?
Every single one of them should be pitched out of whatever offices they hold, and laicized, perhaps even excommunicated. And if I were the civil police I would be carefully investigating to see what crimes they have been committing that makes them want this evil legitimized.
Here is more evidence of the spread of the influence of Satan through sexuality. Homosexuality is a deviant sexual behavior along with Pedophilia and TransGenderism. We have already seen liberals calling for an “understanding” and acceptance of Pedophiles as simply another sexual orientation. They want to open the doors to public acceptance of child abuse. So far they have begun to make legal infanticide so it’s not that far a leap to child sexual abuse given the ease at which they have reduced a living human being to nothing more than a clump of cells even after birth. The evil of the past is showing it’s face and the destruction of the human soul starting with the most innocent has begun.
A synodal church to be.
In short, “We make these demands! Have a nice trip to Rome and say hi to the pope for us.”
What is Holy Mother Church in America doing about punishment for convicted child molesters? Celibacy is one of the vows a priest makes when receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Obviously when a priest breaks his vow of celibacy he needs to speak with not only his bishop, to find out if he would be better suited as a married man; but, he also needs to speak with a licensed trained psychiatrist to help discover why he should remain a priest or live the rest of his life as a married Roman Catholic husband and future father of children. I’ve seen priests who were almost forced into the priesthood by parents who simply had to have one son who would be the priest of the family. Child molestation is another matter altogether. Convicted pedophiles should never be shuffled from parish to parish. These men are preditors and not merely men who made poor career choices. The Roman Catholic Church should never try to hide these men. Of course pedophiles require intensive therapy by trained psychiatrists. As an almost 68 year old Roman Catholic woman, I am ashamed that my beloved church has covered up for these men. I truly believe that the pedophilic priest must be defrocked and never, even as a Roman Catholic layman, be permitted to work with children as long as he lives. Permitting the pedophile to continue as a priest is wrong. He is a mentally disturbed person who needs help, of course. He is not a man to be trusted with the innocent child, ever again. The priest should always be able to be trusted by children and adults, especially those who have no one else to comfort them in their day to day life. I’ve always put my priests upon a pedistal because I realized, especially as I became an adult, they gave up married life, a wife and family, to deserve me calling him, with the greatest of love, “Father.” When I go to Confession and hear a priest encouraging me to empty my heart of troubles, as I say, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”, I know that the holy and celibate priest, who deserves all my respect for all his sacrifices, knows how to help me make peace with God and he will absolve me of my transgressions. There is no room for convicted pedophiles in the priesthood of Holy Mother Church. He has stolen the innocence of a trusting and helpless child. He has murdered Innocense itself, as surely as those Roman soldiers tried to murder Baby Jesus while killing the Holy Innocents.
“Obviously when a priest breaks his vow of celibacy”
If I’m understanding correctly, “celibacy” means not marrying. So the problem with most of those priests is that they are not being chaste, as we are all called to be according to our states in life.
“he needs to speak with not only his bishop, to find out if he would be better suited as a married man;”
That should have been done before he was ordained. Added to which, something like 80% of the “pedophilia” cases were actually cases of homosexual assault on post-pubescent boys, which isn’t actually pedophilia.
“he also needs to speak with a licensed trained psychiatrist”
I wouldn’t trust a psychiatrist. Listening to psychiatrists’ advice was part of what led to moving abusers around; and the psychiatrists’ association also decided that homosexuality is not a mental disorder anymore, and that “transgenderism” is just fine.
“I’ve seen priests who were almost forced into the priesthood by parents who simply had to have one son who would be the priest of the family.”
Somehting which, again, should have been discovered during the discernment process, during their time in seminary – in short, *before* they were ordained. Why wasn’t it? How many priests was this that you’ve seen? When? How did you know that was why they became priests?
“poor career choices.” The priesthood isn’t a career, it’s a calling. Any man who thinks of it as a career shouldn’t be one.
The only absolute Dogma Cardinal Marx believes in is the Church Tax he and his cohorts extort from the Catholic Faithful in Germany.
More probing than spearhead. Prominent Catholic Black Ops Led by Fr Wucherpfennig openly homosexual rector mission to test enemy assets Cardinal Marx their Quisling [since it’s so ludicrously obvious I’m compelled to resort to humor however true]. As prev acknowledged the true enemy are advocates of normalizing the abomination of homosexuality posturing heroic aware as devious cowards they have Vatican and majority societal support. Quislings abound among German Hierarchy very few comparable to 1941 Hierarchy led by Augustus Cardinal von Galen. Although there are a few good men among them. With faith and God’s arm they can win the day. Even if vanquished by the morally disabled their strong resistance is in itself victory.
Open Letter to a group of Nine prominent German Catholics who want a new morality, women priests, etc. Your demands are not exactly a news bombshell. The Catholic faithful worldwide have been hearing this rubbish on and off for over 50 years. Your heretical gripes are getting old and boring. And there exists a fast solution to your unjust gripes: Leave the Roman Catholic Church and start your own church. It’s that simple. No sense sticking with the Church with over 2,000 years of constant teachings about morality and doctrinal beliefs when you Nine prominent German Catholics can start your own new-wave type of church. Frankly, I have more respect for the 16th century Protestant Reformers who left the Church instituted by Christ rather than sticking with it when they no longer believed in its core teachings. You have the full freedom to leave because no one is pointing a gun to your prominent heads, demanding your life or your consent. Parting advice: It is not psychologically sound to with an institution which you find abhorrent.