I don’t feel like I have to comment on everything in the news here, but I feel like I have to say something. I’ve spent the past couple of days going around in my head about this.
I don’t have the personal connection to Notre-Dame de Paris that a lot of folks do: I’ve never been to France, much less seen it up close and personal. I feel like I should have more of a connection, being a frustrated amateur historian and Notre-Dame being one of the spiritual centers of my people.
I don’t know that I have any kind of profound take on it, compared to other, smarter people. There is a part of me that finds some level of symbolism in the fire taking place this week, of all weeks: Notre-Dame rising from the ashes as symbolic analogy to Christ rising from the tomb.
There is another part of me that wants to echo Pirsig from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the distinction he makes: the church as corporate body that pays bills and employs people and owns buildings, and the Church as the great mass of believers, the continuity of belief and tradition in the lives of people, not in a building. Notre-Dame might burn, but the true Church will never die as long as there are believers.
But that seems dismissive. On the other hand, there are some takes I’ve liked:
I took a survey course of Catholic cathedral architecture taught by a remarkably cynical former priest and on the first day of class he was like “of cathedrals have multiple dates for different parts, burning down is an essential part of the life cycle of Catholic architecture.”
— ghost wife (@eponawest) April 15, 2019
(Thread.)
The fire department in Paris followed a protocol: Save the people, save the art, save the altar, save what furniture you can, then focus on the structure, in that order. They know what can be rebuilt and what can't.
— Michael … .-.. .- …- .. – -.-. …. (@_theek_) April 15, 2019
(Also thread. But calling out:
The steeple and the beams supporting it are 160 years old, and oaks for new beams awaits at Versailles, the grown replacements for oaks cut to rebuild after the revolution.
— Michael … .-.. .- …- .. – -.-. …. (@_theek_) April 15, 2019
Remind you of anything in particular?)
It looks now like there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic: the rose windows survived, the art and relics were rescued (and if there’s any justice at all in France, Father Fournier will never be able to pay for a drink or meal with his own money for the rest of his life), and the cathedral will be rebuilt. As other, smarter people have pointed out, this isn’t the first time: Notre-Dame was desecrated and damaged during the French Revolution, and restored between 1844 and 1864.
This was York Minster in 1984. Today you’d have no idea it happened. pic.twitter.com/FtzNRFscZr
— Daniel Benneworth-Gray (@gray) April 15, 2019
(True side note: my mother emailed me and asked if Quasimodo made it out. I had to explain to her that he wasn’t actually in the cathedral at the time, but was in a small space behind the building: the hutch back of Notre-Dame. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.)
Paris is at prayer and the Cross and the altar still stand amid the wreckage. These things should strike the Christian faithful as significant indeed.
— Fr. Brendon Laroche (@padrebrendon) April 15, 2019
Edited to add: One thing I forgot to note: we know a lot about Notre-Dame.
I know this doesn't help, but we have exquisite 3D laser maps of every detail of Notre Dame, thanks to the incredible work of @Vassar art historian Andrew Tallon. Prof Tallon passed away last November, but his work will be absolutely crucial https://t.co/YJl3XXUZTg
— Hannah Groch-Begley (@grouchybagels) April 15, 2019