Excitement is mounting in Paris ahead of the December 8 reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral with only a few cranes remaining on the outside of the iconic French church. Source: OSV News.
As scaffolding has largely been removed from the outside structure, the inside renovation work continues at full speed to finish it on time for the most anticipated church event of the decade in the French capital.
Those involved in the reconstruction told said anyone who enters the cathedral testifies to their amazement and wonder at the new luminosity of the interior, thanks to the restoration of the limestone blocks, which have regained their blond hue.
What has electrified France in the final months leading to the reopening is the question of whether Pope Francis himself will come for the occasion — an invitation extended to the Pope by President Emmanuel Macron in December 2023.
At the beginning of the Pope’s 12-day trip to Asia, a French writer started a rumour that the Pope would travel to Paris on December 8 for the reopening and consecration of the cathedral’s altar. But on his flight on September 13 from Singapore to Rome, he was asked about this and he simply responded, “I will not go to Paris”.
The French state, which owns the cathedral building, led the restoration following the devastating fire on April 15, 2019. The Paris Archdiocese was responsible for the interior finishing work, which must be completed “within a very tight timeframe.”
“The liturgical platform is still being laid,” said Véronique Creissels, director of communications for the cathedral rector.
Made up of stone steps and black and white marble slabs, this monumental platform has been rebuilt identically to its predecessor, but with an internal metal structure to accommodate electrical and digital cables.
The liturgical furniture — imagined and designed by the French designer and sculptor Guillaume Bardet — is composed of five elements: the altar as a natural centrepiece, the cathedra and the associated seats, the ambo, the tabernacle and the baptistery. Each of the pieces was designed in sculpted bronze, “a material offering a powerful, timeless and luminous aesthetic,” the Paris Archdiocese said.
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Tradition will meet subtle modernity in restored Notre Dame Cathedral (By Caroline de Sury, OSV News)
