U.S. basilicas, churches will ring bells at the moment Notre Dame Cathedral reopens Dec. 7
PARIS — The world was left stunned when the first images of the rebuilt Notre Dame were published and spread with viral speed as President Emmanuel Macron walked through the bright, unrecognizably beautiful Parisian cathedral on Nov. 29, a week ahead of the Dec. 7-8 official reopening.
Accompanied by first lady Brigitte Macron, the president was welcomed on the forecourt of the cathedral by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris and the rector-archpriest of Notre Dame Cathedral, Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas. As he entered the cathedral, he shared with them his first impression — describing the cathedral’s interior as “sublime,” evoking the inner light that now characterizes it.
All traces of construction work had disappeared for this visit, and the liturgical furnishings had been installed. The only thing missing were the chairs. The nave was empty and spacious. The light from its white stone and cleaned stained-glass windows now make the cathedral appear much larger than it once did when it was dark.
Macron toured the cathedral, and at every point he was greeted by workers of dozens of trades responsible for explaining the work that had been carried out.
Briac Thomas, head engineer for the stonecutters and stonemasons of the French company Lefèvre, was present in the cathedral for the president’s visit. He worked on Notre Dame’s stones full time for two and a half years.
“The pace of work was intense,” Thomas explained. “Two teams worked every day, the first from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., then the second until 9 p.m.”
“Our first mission was to secure the cathedral,” Thomas said. “We had to reinforce the base of the damaged vaults to prevent stones from falling and causing them to collapse completely.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, center, visited the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Nov. 29.
As TV cameras were able to go all the way up to the roof structure, where the woodwork was described in detail for the presidential visit and for television viewers, President Macron admired the new, particularly shiny reliquary of the crown of thorns and spoke with Guillaume Bardet, the artist responsible for the liturgical furniture.
Another significant moment was spent at the foot of the Pieta at the back of the cathedral. There, sculpture restorer Nathalie Pruha explained the decision to leave a few traces of the lead that had fallen from the roof timbers on the statue of the Virgin carrying her crucified son.
This charred piece of lead, intended to preserve the memory of the fire, was shown up close on television, in the hand of Christ lying on his mother’s lap.
The second part of the visit consisted of a meeting with some 1,300 craftsmen who were invited to enter the nave, all lit up. “You have transformed coal into art,” President Macron told them. “The blaze at Notre Dame was a national wound, and you were its remedy through will, work and commitment.”
The president spoke of the successful completion of the work in five years. “You have achieved what we thought impossible,” he said. “This is an immense source of pride for the entire nation.”
Confirming the team effort, stonemason Thomas said, “Working together at Notre Dame helped make this an exceptional project, one that will go down in the history of French heritage restoration and conservation.”
Thomas emphasized that “we have all left a bit of ourselves in these stone walls that are almost a thousand years old.”
“Working on a project like this pushed us all, whatever our religious convictions, to put our heart and soul into it. We really wanted to lead this rebirth as best we could, whether for urban architectural reasons or to give the faithful back their place of worship.”
U.S. basilicas, churches to ring bells
As Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris officially reopens Dec. 7-8, bells will ring in churches an ocean away in the United States to celebrate the historic moment.
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington has invited local churches to toll their bells Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. EST, when the two-day reopening ceremonies will begin.
The USCCB in a Nov. 29 post on X (formerly Twitter) had also invited local churches to join in ringing their bells in celebration.
“Please join us in celebrating the reopening of this iconic cathedral that holds a special place in the hearts of all believers and people of goodwill worldwide,” it added in another X post.
“This gesture of uniting our local Churches with the Cathedral of Paris would be one more sign of our union to the eldest daughter of the Church whose forefathers contributed so much to the U.S. struggle for Independence,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a Dec. 3 post to the USCCB’s X account.
