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.
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.
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.
This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.
