‘The Lord does not abandon his own’: jubilation as Notre Dame Cathedral reopens

On the evening of 7 December, the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral put Paris in the spotlight once again as Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris struck the magnificent door with his pastoral staff, marking the moment of the iconic Catholic church’s rebirth.

‘Notre Dame, model of faith, open your doors to gather in joy the scattered children of God,’ Archbishop Ulrich called out in front of the central door, before striking it three times with the tip of his crosier. The pastoral staff itself was made from a beam from the cathedral’s roof structure that escaped the fire.

The cathedral then ‘responded’ with the singing of Psalm 121 three times. ‘I rejoiced when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” And now our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, built as a city, walled round about.’

It was pitch-dark when the bells of Parisian churches rang out across the capital, announcing the arrival on Notre Dame’s forecourt of the liturgical procession of bishops from the Paris region and beyond, their chasubles billowing in the wind.

May the rebirth of this admirable church be a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France.

Firefighters, craftsmen and representatives of the 250 companies and sponsors involved in the restoration then paraded through the nave of the cathedral to prolonged applause. Outside, illuminated ‘thank you’ messages in several languages appeared at the same time on the facade of the cathedral.

‘Today, sadness and mourning have given way to joy, celebration and praise,’ Pope Francis wrote to the Archbishop of Paris in a message read in Notre Dame by the Papal Ambassador to France, Archbishop Celestino Migliore.

‘May the rebirth of this admirable church be a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France,’ the Pope said in his message.

Pope Francis also praised those whose work of hands made the Cathedral rise again so quickly.

‘It is beautiful and reassuring that the skills of yesteryear have been wisely preserved and enhanced,’ he wrote, emphasising that many of the workers and craftsmen ‘testify to having lived this restoration adventure as part of an authentic spiritual process. They followed in the footsteps of their fathers whose faith, lived out in their work, was the only way to build such a masterpiece.’

Pope Francis said that soon Notre Dame will ‘be visited and admired once again’ by huge crowds of people from all walks of life.

‘I know, Your Excellency, that your doors will be wide open to them, and that you will be committed to welcoming them generously and freely, as brothers and sisters,’ he wrote, prompting waves of comments in France that the Pope himself had spoken out against the entrance fee for the cathedral proposed by France’s Ministry of Culture.

‘May they, lifting their eyes to these vaults that have regained their light, share his invincible hope,’ the Pope said of the 15 million people expected to visit Notre Dame every year.

The cross at the back of the choir shines brightly! What a contrast to the desolate photos of the day after the fire.

French president Emmanuel Macron also spoke at the opening of the restored Gothic masterpiece. ‘We return it to Catholics, to Paris, to France, to the whole world,’ he said of Notre Dame, which is a state-owned building according to a French law on the separation of state and Church dating from 1905. He described the sound of the cathedral’s bells ringing again as ‘a music of hope, familiar to Parisians, to France, to the world’—a sound that has ‘accompanied our history’.

Fr Gaëtan de Bodard, the new chaplain of the Paris fire brigade that saved Notre Dame, was also full of admiration. ‘The cross at the back of the choir shines brightly! What a contrast to the desolate photos of the day after the fire,’ he told OSV News. Fr de Bodard is the successor to Fr Jean-Marc Fournier, who courageously ran into the burning cathedral to preserve the Blessed Sacrament, bless the burning church and then save the crown of thorns.

The firefighters were greeted by a 5-minute standing ovation, as they walked through Notre Dame between dozens of heads of state, including US President-Elect Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the reopening ceremonies.

Outside the cathedral, chilling December rain had not prevented crowds from gathering in the famous Latin Quarter just across the River Seine. Giant screens had been set up to allow some 40,000 people to follow the ceremony.

‘It is cold, and it is raining, but it is really worth being here,’ student Agnès Boüan told OSV News. ‘Everyone here cheered when they heard the bells, then when they saw on the big screens the firemen and craftsmen marching,’ she said. ‘And for me, as a Catholic, it is also a bit of a symbol of the rebirth of France as the eldest daughter of the Church.’

Even if the shock caused by the fire may have been lasting, the pain was already overcome when prayer rose from the banks of the Seine and from hundreds of millions of hearts around the world.

The next morning, the cathedral was this time illuminated by daylight as the procession of 170 bishops entered Notre Dame, followed by more than 100 banner-bearers representing all of Paris’ parishes, and seven priest representatives of the various Eastern Catholic Churches.

Outside, on the quayside behind the Seine, hundreds of worshippers gathered despite the rain near the picturesque second-hand bookshops (closed at the time) to follow the Mass on a big screen.

‘Whether you are in this building or in front of a screen, or outside in the rain, you are recipients of God’s benevolence,’ the Archbishop said at the beginning of the Mass. He also paid tribute to those ‘who face the rigours of war,’ and prayed for France, ‘which scans its future with concern,’ referring to current political upheavals in France.

‘Do not be content to simply enjoy the pleasure of being here on such a special day when the cathedral of Paris regains its splendour, such as no one has ever known it before,’ he told those gathered. ‘Whether you are believers or not, you are welcome to participate in the joy of the believers here, who give glory to God for having found their mother Church.’

‘Do not only remain dazzled by the beauty of the stones found, but let yourselves be led to the greatest joys, to the most beautiful gift that God gives you and gives us of his loving presence, of his closeness to the poorest, of his transforming power in the sacraments,’ Archbishop Ulrich said.

‘Even if the shock caused by the fire may have been lasting, the pain was already overcome when prayer rose from the banks of the Seine and from hundreds of millions of hearts around the world,’ Archbishop Ulrich declared.

Generation after generation, the Lord does not abandon his own.

Notre Dame’s remarkable five-year resurrection from the ashes is not the only example of God’s grace through the centuries, he stressed.

‘Generation after generation—believers experience it—the Lord does not abandon his own,’ Archbishop Ulrich said. Even if ‘distress and violence do not cease throughout the history of men,’ it is God and his disciples ‘who feed on his strength to show the way to the victory of life’.

The consecration of the new main altar was an important moment in the inaugural Mass. First, the archbishop placed inside the altar the relics of two holy men and three holy women whose history is linked to the Church in Paris, including those of St Marie Eugénie Milleret, St Madeleine Sophie Barat, St Charles de Foucauld, Blessed Vladimir Ghika and St Catherine Labouré.

After a long prayer of dedication, Archbishop Ulrich anointed the altar with the blessed oil of Holy Chrism, spreading it over the entire surface with his bare hands. Then incense candles were lit at five points on the altar, on the five crosses engraved in bronze. Finally, the priests covered the altar with the white cloth and lit the candles to continue with Mass, accompanied by the choir’s singing.

Later that day, a second Sunday Mass, this time open to the public, was celebrated by Notre Dame’s rector-archpriest, Fr Olivier Ribadeau Dumas. On 3 December, when the digital app to reserve a place at the Mass went live, all 1,500 places at the Mass were reserved within 25 minutes, the Associated Press confirmed.

Fr Ribadeau Dumas had long been looking forward to once again celebrating a simple Mass at the cathedral, once the ‘pomp’ of the reopening ceremonies had been replaced by ‘humble normality’, he told OSV News.