Notre Dame Cathedral ‘back in the light’ after glorious
reopening
Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich knocks on the door of
Notre-Dame Cathedral during a ceremony to mark the reopening of the landmark
cathedral in central Paris on Dec. 7, 2024. | Credit: Christophe Petit
Tesson/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
By Solène
Tadié
CNA Newsroom, Dec 7, 2024 / 20:15 pm
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 about 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.
The choir, clergy, and guests stand during the ceremony to
mark the reopening of Notre-Dame of Paris Cathedral on Dec. 7, 2024, in Paris.
After five years of restoration, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris reopened its
doors to the world in the presence of Emmanuel Macron and about 40 heads of
state, including President-elect Donald Trump, invited for the occasion.
Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Notre-Dame de Paris
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 Judgment, by the archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich.
The opening of the doors was set to the music of the polyphonic piece “Totus
Tuus,” composed in 1987 by Henryk Gorecki during Pope 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, Archbishop 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
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 nonbelievers.
After singing the Magnificat and reciting the Our Father,
the ceremony concluded with a final blessing and the singing of the Te Deum.
Brigitte Macron, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, and
President of France Emmanuel Macron attend the ceremony to mark the reopening
of Notre-Dame of Paris Cathedral on Dec. 7, 2024, in Paris. Credit: Pascal Le
Segretain/Getty Images for Notre-Dame de Paris
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 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’ (about $53,000) 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 on 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 about 12 million before the fire.
“Now is the time to return to Notre-Dame!” he declared.
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