Notre-Dame Cathedral Reopens in Paris

Facts

• Notre-Dame Cathedral, the 12th-century Gothic church in the heart of Paris, reopened over the weekend for the first time since a massive fire destroyed its roof and spire in 2019.^[1][2]
• Some 1.5K people attended the reopening ceremony on Saturday, including world leaders such as France's Pres. Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Pres.-elect Donald Trump.^[3][4]
• Earlier, Macron hosted Trump and Zelenskyy at the Élysée Palace for a private meeting that the Ukrainian described as "good and productive." Trump also met with UK's Prince William after the ceremony.^[5][6]
• On Sunday morning, Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich led an inaugural mass to consecrate the altar. Later that day, a second service — and the first regular public Mass — was celebrated with 2.5K worshippers in attendance.^[7][8]
• Special services will continue this week, including the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Thursday and the solemn return of the Holy Crown of Thorns on Friday. Notre-Dame will resume its daily schedule next Monday, with church authorities expecting to receive up to 15M visitors a year.^[7][9]
• The reopening of Notre-Dame culminates a five-year reconstruction effort that cost nearly $1B and involved thousands of experts, from carpenters and stonemasons to stained glass window artists. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.^[2][3][4]

Sources: ^[1]National Review, ^[2]Associated Press, ^[3]National Catholic Register, ^[4]Reuters, ^[5]CNN, ^[6]BBC News, ^[7]France 24, ^[8]The New York Times and ^[9]Notre Dame de Paris.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Euronews. Under fire at home, Macron has achieved a symbolic victory with the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral — which he has described as a "metaphor for the life of the nation" — in just five years. Furthermore, he was able to make an impressive return to the world stage to broker talks with Trump and Zelenskyy.
• Narrative B, as provided by UnHerd. Given that Notre-Dame is a symbol of Western civilization, those who worked to rebuild it must be praised — even politicians such as Emmanuel Macron. It's a shame, though, that the French president has sought to use the reopening for his own secular purposes, acting as if the cathedral were a civil hall rather than a place of worship.