What burned in Paris this Holy Week? Principally a church, the great church of the French people, their culture, their heritage, their nation
Notre Dame is to the French identity much more than the World Trade Centers were to American commerce or the Pentagon to American power. The cathedral of Paris is more than even Windsor Castle is to the Royal Family, where the British bury their kings and queens. So the destruction of Notre Dame is more devastating that the destruction of those buildings, though less so at the same time because there was no loss of life.
Notre Dame, over its eight centuries, has seen dark days. Some commentators got it wrong yesterday when they said this was the worst day in its nearly millennial history. No, the worst days were during the French Revolution, when the cathedral was desecrated, turned into a sacrilegious temple to the “goddess of reason” by the first bloodthirsty totalitarians of the modern age. The fires of hell burn much hotter than the fire in Paris on Monday.
St. Paul’s in Rome was rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1855, after countries all over the world made contributions. The Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt, a Muslim, sent precious pillars of alabaster, and the Empress of Russia, an Orthodox Christian, sent the malachite and lapis lazuli for the tabernacle. It would be fitting if the entire francophone made their own contributions.
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