Clergy members leave the nave after the inaugural Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, five-and-a-half years after a fire ravaged the Gothic masterpiece, in Paris, Dec. 8, 2024. OSV News photo/Sarah Meyssonnier, Reuters
By OSV News
PARIS (OSV News) — Chilling rain and the “City of Lights” completely locked down due to high profile guests did not stop the crowds from arriving as close to Notre Dame Cathedral as possible for its inaugural Mass celebrated Dec. 8. The beloved Paris icon also opened its doors to the public for the first time after the devastating fire in 2019, with the second Mass that Sunday for Parisians and tourists. The first solemn Mass witnessed the consecration of the cathedral’s new bronze altar by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris, who invited all attendees to “participate in the joy of the believers here who give glory to God for having found their mother church.” A procession of 170 bishops entered the cathedral in the morning, followed by more than one hundred banner bearers representing all of Paris’ parishes, and seven priest-representatives of the Eastern Catholic churches. The consecration of the new altar was a central part of the ceremony, with the placement of relics of five holy men and women inside the altar, whose history is linked to the church in Paris, including those of St. Marie Eugénie Milleret, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, St. Charles de Foucauld, Blessed Vladimir Ghika and St. Catherine Labouré. “Generation after generation — believers experience it — the Lord does not abandon his own,” Archbishop Ulrich said. Even if “distress and violence do not cease throughout the history of men,” it is God and his disciples “who feed on his strength to show the way to the victory of life.”