During the Olympics, track and field athletes rang the bronze bell at the Saint-Denis’ Stade de France and now that same bill will ring during Masses when Notre Dame Cathedral reopens this December. / Credit: Photo by MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
CNA Staff, Aug 25, 2024 / 05:16 am (CNA).
A bell made for the recent Paris Olympics will soon find a new home in one of the most historic cathedrals in the world, according to OSV News.
During the Olympics, track and field athletes rang the bronze bell at the Saint-Denis’ Stade de France and now that same bell will ring during Masses when Notre Dame Cathedral reopens this December.
The bell, which weighs 1,103 pounds, was made by the Cornille Havard foundry, which produces bells for France’s largest churches and cathedrals, specifically for the Olympic Games. The foundry is located in the small French commune of Villedieu-les-Poêles in Normandy.
In 2013, the Cornille Havard foundry made nine new bells for Notre Dame for the occasion of its 850th anniversary. It was this foundry that also restored eight of these nine bells after they were damaged in the tragic Notre Dame fire on April 15, 2019.
“We were contacted a few months ago by the Paris Organizing Committee, to see if we would be interested in this bell for Notre Dame,” said the cathedral’s rector-archpriest Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, according to OSV News. “And we accepted this proposal.”
The Olympic Bell will join two other bells inside the cathedral close to the organ. The three bells will ring together during the Mass at the time of the consecration.
Notre Dame’s largest bell is known as “le bourdon Emmanuel” and is located in the south tower. Dating back to the time of King Louis XIV at the end of the 17th century, the bell rings for historic events such as the end of both World Wars. This bell was not affected by the 2019 fire and continues to be rung for special occasions.
Dumas told OSV News that the bell “has rung several times since the fire, at Easter and Christmas, and for special occasions such as the death of Pope Benedict XVI.”
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Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the recitation of the Regina Caeli on May 7, 2023. / Vatican Media
CNA Staff, May 7, 2023 / 06:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Sunday warned against the danger of living life without a sense of purpose or a destination to set our course by, reminding the faithful that Jesus is “our compass for reaching heaven,” our true home.
Speaking to pilgrims gathered on a sunny day in St. Peter’s Square to pray the Regina Caeli, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus consoles his disciples before his ascension, telling them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6).
“Jesus sees the disciples’ distress, their fear of being abandoned, just as it happens to us when we are forced to be separated from someone we care for. And so, he says: ‘I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am you may be also,” the pope said.
“Jesus uses the familiar image of home, the place of relationships and intimacy. In the Father’s house — he says to his friends, and to each one of us — there is space for you, you are welcome, you will always be received with the warmth of an embrace, and I am in Heaven to prepare a place for you!”
Pope Francis said that keeping in mind “where life is headed” is the way to get through the experiences of “fatigue, bewilderment, and even failure.”
When we lose sight of what makes “life worth living for,” he said, we “compress our life into the present,” the pope said. We merely seek maximum enjoyment and “end up living day by day, without purpose, without a goal.”
“Our homeland, instead, is in heaven; let us not forget the greatness and the beauty of our destination!” he urged.
Pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the recitation of the Regina Caeli on May 7, 2023. Vatican Media
But if we know the goal, we also have to know how to get there, the pope continued. When we face problems or when there is the “sensation that evil is stronger,” we ask, like Thomas, “What should I do?”
The pope responded: “Let us listen to Jesus’ answer: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life’ … He is the way and therefore faith in him is not a ‘package of ideas’ in which to believe, but rather a road to be traveled, a journey to undertake.”
“He is the way that leads to unfailing happiness,” the pope said, and imitating him is “the compass for reaching heaven: loving Jesus, the way, becoming signs of his love on earth.”
“Let us not be overwhelmed by the present,” the pope said. “Let us look up, to heaven, let us remember the goal, let us think that we are called to eternity, to the encounter with God.”
The pope then led the traditional Easter midday prayer, the Regina Caeli, in Latin.
After the prayer, the Holy Father noted two beatifications that happened on Saturday, one in Spain and one in Uruguay.
The first bishop of Uruguay, Bishop Jacinto Vera, was beatified in Montevideo. The bishop, who died in 1881, “witnessed to the gospel with powerful missionary ideals in the very difficult times of civil war,” the pope noted.
In Spain, Conchita Barrecheguren was beatified. Her full name was María de la Concepción del Perpetuo Socorro, but she was known as Conchita (the nickname for those named after the Immaculate Conception). The pope recalled how she “was bedridden for a long time and was able to face her illness with a lot of courage and strength.” She died in her early 20s, in 1927.
Members of the Meter Association, an organization that works to combat the abuse of minors, wave flags and a banner in St. Peter’s Square on May 7, 2023. Vatican Media
The pope also greeted a number of the faithful who were in the Square. Among those he welcome were members of the Meter Association who were dressed in bright yellow clothing and were accompanied by their founder, Father Fortunato di Noto. This association works to combat the abuse of minors. The pope noted that they were marking a remembrance day for victims. He encouraged them in their work and thanked them, reminding them that Jesus meets them in the young people they assist. I “accompany you with my prayers,” he said.
The pope also had a special hello for members of the Swiss Guard with their friends and family members, who participated in Saturday’s swearing-in ceremony.
There were 23 recruits sworn in on May 6, the tradition day of the initiation ceremony, which marks the anniversary of the sacrifice of 147 Swiss guards who died during the Sack of Rome in 1527 as they protected Pope Clement VII.
Finally, the pope noted the May 8 feast of Our Lady of Pompeii.
“In this sanctuary where we pray for peace, and especially in this month of May, we pray the rosary asking Our Blessed Mother for the gift of peace, especially for the people in Ukraine.”
He expressed his wish that leaders of countries “would listen to the desire of the people — who continue to suffer, and who desire and long for peace.”
The shrine in Pompeii — just a few minutes from the city that was famously destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. — is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and was renovated in the late 1800s.
Pope Francis delivers his Sunday Angelus message to about 20,000 faithful in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 22, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 31, 2023 / 08:50 am (CNA).
In the Catholic Church, the first days of November are an important time for remembering those who have come and gone before us — both the holy men and women who are canonized saints in heaven and our departed loved ones we hope and pray are also partaking in the beatific vision.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis will mark this holy and significant season with prayer and two liturgies.
On the solemnity of All Saints on Nov. 1, Pope Francis will give a short address and lead the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square at noon Rome time.
It is the pope’s custom to lead an Angelus on holy days of obligation.
Since All Saints’ Day falls on a Wednesday this year, Francis will not hold his usual weekly general audience.
For All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2, he will continue his recent custom of holding a Mass at a cemetery to pray for the dead.
Since 2016, Pope Francis has celebrated a Mass at five different cemeteries in or near Rome. For All Souls’ Day in 2019, he celebrated Mass at the Catacombs of Priscilla, while in 2022 he did not visit a cemetery but offered Mass for deceased bishops and cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica — another papal custom during the week of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days.
For 2023, Francis will again return to a cemetery to mark All Souls’ Day. He will preside over a Mass at 10 a.m. at the Rome War Cemetery, which contains 426 Commonwealth burials from the Second World War.
The small cemetery is near the Pyramid of Cestius, a Roman-era pyramid in the Ostiense neighborhood south of the historic center of Rome.
The following morning, on Nov. 3, Pope Francis will preside over a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the repose of the soul of Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops and cardinals who have died in the previous year. It is the pope’s practice to offer this Mass sometime during the first week of November.
How soon people forget. The Parus Olympics mocked the Last Supper and now its bell will ring at a Cathedral that is now owned by the state.