CNA Newsroom, Dec 7, 2024 / 20:15 pm (CNA).
The doors of the newly restored Notre-Dame of Paris Cathedral were officially reopened to the public during a ceremony Saturday evening just over five years after a blaze ravaged the iconic structure’s roof, frame, and spire.
The celebration, which began at around 7:20 p.m. local time, was attended by some 1,500 people, including around 40 heads of state, including U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai of Antioch were among the 170 bishops from France and around the world who attended the ceremony, which featured a message from Pope Francis, who did not travel for the occasion.
Authorities mobilized a massive security force of some 6,000 police and gendarmes for the event, citing a “very high level of terrorist threat.” Space was provided for up to 40,000 people outside the cathedral.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who was initially scheduled to speak on the cathedral’s forecourt to respect the law of separation between the Church and the state, wound up speaking inside the building due to inclement weather, as previously announced in a press release from the Archdiocese of Paris.
Expressing “the gratitude of the French nation” to the cathedral’s rebuilders during his address, Macron asserted that Notre Dame “tells us how much meaning and transcendence help us to live in this world.”
Breaking five years of silence, the bell of Notre-Dame, known as the bourdon, rang out across Paris. This was the first step in the reopening office, initiated by three knocks on the cathedral’s central portal, the Portal of the Last Judgement, by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich. The opening of the doors was set to the music of the polyphonic piece Totus Tuss, composed in 1987 by Henryk Gorecki during John Paul II’s visit to Poland, and sung by the 150 young members of the Maîtrise de Notre Dame.
“May the rebirth of this admirable Church be a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France,” Pope Francis said in a letter read by the apostolic nuncio of France, Monsignor Celestino Migliore, after a tribute to the firefighters who saved the 800-year-old cathedral from the flames and the French president’s speech. “I invite all the baptized who will joyfully enter this cathedral to feel a legitimate pride and reclaim their faith heritage,” he added.
There followed the awakening and blessing of the great organ, a three-century-old instrument whose pipes had remained clogged with lead dust following the 2019 fire.
“Notre-Dame has known darkness, now it is back in the light. It has known silence, and now it rediscovers the joy of our chants,” said Archbishop Ulrich, who took possession of the Paris cathedral for the first time, two years after his nomination as head of the Paris archdiocese, succeeding Archbishop Michel Aupetit.
In his brief homily, Ulrich emphasized that “it is not only princes, chiefs and notables who have their place in the Church,” but that “the door is open to all,” including foreigners and non-believers.
After singing the Magnificat and reciting the Our Father, the ceremony concluded with a final blessing and the singing of the Te Deum.
At the end of the religious ceremony, a concert organized and broadcast by France Télévisions and Radio France featured internationally renowned artists including Chinese pianist Lang Lang, South African soprano Pretty Yende, and Franco-Swiss tenor Benjamin Bernheim.
The consecration Mass for the cathedral’s new main altar was scheduled for Sunday at 10:30 a.m. local time, again in the presence of the French President and religious leaders. The cathedral itself was not desecrated by the blaze, as Archbishop Aupetit celebrated a mass there two months later.
Celebrations surrounding the reopening of Notre-Dame will continue until Dec. 16, with each day devoted to welcoming different communities and groups, including firefighters and patrons. At the end of this octave, the cathedral will return to its usual schedule.
The fire, the causes of which have yet to be determined, has sparked a wave of emotion around the world, including in the United States, which has the largest number of foreign contributors to the restoration and reconstruction work, amounting to almost 700 million euros ($740 million.) Michel Picaud, president of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris, said in a recent interview that American donors accounted for 90% of 50,000 euros worth of international donations received by the charitable association. The five years of work involved a total of 250 companies and hundreds of craftsmen.
With almost half of the French population already planning to visit the breathtaking and now-immaculate cathedral, rebuilt in the style of the one designed by 19th-century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, extended opening hours will be offered until next Pentecost, with a new free online booking system.
At a press conference in Paris, Nov. 13, the cathedral’s rector Monsignor Olivier Ribadeau Dumas announced that some 15 million visitors would now be expected to visit the cathedral each year, compared with around 12 million before the fire. “Now is the time to return to Notre-Dame!” he declared.
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The archbishop of Paris was missing one essential element to complement those disgustingly hideous vestments he was wearing for the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral – the cope he was wearing should have been emblazoned with the image of the Papal Mascot: Luce.
All looking old, grey and so very tired and dated in Novus Ordo land.
And possibly Macron’s last public appearance on a «state» occasion, the French state does own, through appropriation, the building after all.
The Holy Father hopes for «renewal», that may well not be of the kind he’s hoping for.
https://ewtn.co.uk/catholicism-in-france-could-soon-become-a-minority-but-a-more-traditional-one-experts-claim/
Isn’t France the one who just put abortion rights in their constitution?
I was deeply moved by the global celebration and political recognition of Notre Dame’s return. Witnessing the grand reopening was truly exhilarating, as the doors of this magnificent cathedral once again welcomed the world.
I must confess, I found myself pondering the choice of vestments, seeking some deeper meaning behind them, yet it eluded me.
What remains certain is my heartfelt desire to visit Notre Dame next year, under more serene circumstances, to truly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in that sacred place.
Re: Ulrich’s vestments, I think he was trying to promote Ukraine (Zelensky was there, still trying to get Trump to fund his war) and Romania (which recently cancelled an election because the “wrong” (i.e., sympathetic to Russia) side won), with a little LGBTQ rainbow effect thrown in. The whole ceremony smacked of the globalist, woke, warmongering, “liberal” Western world trying to bask in the glow of a rebuilt Notre Dame, as if traditional western Christian culture would side with them.
May the saints of France pray for us!
This article understands the semiotics.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-restoration-of-notre-dame-cathedral-was-a-struggle-for-the-soul-of-france/
The Viollet-le-Duc sanctuary/choir, which sadly survived the fire, is an aesthetic muddle more akin to a mausoleum than a locus for the celebration of the Holy Mysteries. Victor Hugo, a great promoter of the «authentic» identity of Notre Dame in French history, hated it.
The grave yard block modern altar, the couture vestments and the Ikea Scandi Mass vessels were, as the writer of the above link hints, all somewhat «Anglican» in their anodyne, modern pointlessness.
I do wonder how many of those Novus Ordo hierarchs actually hold to the Catholic concept of the Real Presence, Body, Soul and Divinity beyond the mere symbolic.
However, the French state is to be commended for its speed in handling the reconstruction.
Let’s be grateful Notre Dame wasn’t completely destroyed in the fire and that they bothered to repair it.
Amen, Miss Cleo.
What’s that strange object the bishops are standing around? Perhaps it’s meant to be modern art. I’m too stupid to understand it.
Thank goodness the folks who were in charge of restoring Notre Dame were not the folks who chose the vestments. But in full view was the contrast between beauty and fad, between the sublime and the disposable, between what speaks to the soul and cheap trinkets that catch the fancy of distractible infants. And after those truly hideous vestments are recycled into throw rugs, perhaps the Flintstone sanctuary appointments will be relegated to chipped marble for the rock garden. I suspect an archdiocesan liturgy committee called those shots.
And sincere thanks to Solene Tadie for her knowledgeable and insightful articles on all things French/Catholic.
The cathedral’s exoskeleton has been restored, but not its heart, the altar, which is more hideous than ever. And deprived of the real Mass, the building will continue to serve primarily as a tourist destination and museum for what the Faith, and France, used to be.
Congratulations. Restored Notre Dame Cathedral is a sacred space. Parisians and the people of France are a God loving people. May their tribe increase.
then why the recent abortion votes
The fire destroyed the novos ordo table, whilst leaving the original high altar intact. Any take away message ?
The only thing that ruined the re-opening was that loser trump was there
That ‘loser’ Trump has just won a clear majority of votes in the recent presidential elections in the USA.
An awful lot of us were GLAD that Trump, a Non-Catholic who has respect for God and the church, was at the ceremony. As opposed to “devout” Catholic Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. As major pro-abortion politicians, maybe its just as well they didnt attend.
The photos of the place looked beautiful. Museum or not, anything that gets people inside a church may also get them thinking about God, and that cannot be a bad thing. Who says God does not visit museums??
I am not a supporter of Modern style churches and I am glad this one was at least mostly brought back to a traditional look. Just cleaning the dirt off the old marble and limestone gave an amazing result.
Years ago I had the chance to visit St. Patrick’s Church in Dublin Ireland. Which I assumed would be Catholic but discovered was apparently Episcopal. Beautiful very old structure in severe need of cleaning and renovation. I wish someone would head up a committee for that.
But as for Notre Dame, I think its wonderful that it has reopened.
I agree with the “mostly” point, but recently with Christmas shopping I finally figured out what those ugly fixtures are around what is supposed to be an altar and chairs. They look very much like the large trash containers they supply in shopping malls.