The Catholic Weekly 5 April 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 25 5, April, 2020 VISTA WILL BE TAKING A SHORT BREAK ... But watch this page for more interesting news locally and from around the world Studies celebrate Paris’ Grande Dame Possibly the best known cathedral in the world has now stood for 800 years History of great Cathedral in stone 1163 THE FIRST stone of the cathedral is laid with Pope Alexander III in attendance. 1182 BISHOP MAURICE de Sully celebrates the first Mass after the high altar has been consecrated. 1240-1345 INCORPORATING GOTHIC elements, sev- eral different builders guide the cathedral to completion. 1789 FRENCH REVOLUTION- ARIES cause major damage to the build- ing, especially the statuary. 1831 PUBLICATION OF Vic- tor Hugo’s The Hunch- back of Notre Dame sparks a campaign to restore the cathedral. 1844 VIOLLET-LE-DUC IS appointed to lead a complete restoration of Notre Dame. 2019 FIRE DESTROYS roof AMONG THE many disasters of 2019, the burning of the No- tre Dame Cathedral in Par- is evoked, possibly, the most universal sadness as this ca- thedral and the Eiffel Tower are the two most famous sym- bols of Paris. The cathedral fire which started on 15 April destroyed the roof, brought down the spire and dam- aged many precious objects housed in the cathedral. The silver lining is that no human lives were lost; an alarm was sounded and the cathedral was cleared a half hour before flames were sighted. There has been no evidence found, as of yet, that the burning was the act of a terrorist. Before the fire, a fund for the restoration of the cathe- dral had been started in 2018 and scaffolding had been put up and was there on the day of the fire. But officials worried that there wasn’t enough in the fund to continue the pro- ject. The day after the fire, more than a billion dollars was do- nated. The day after the fire French President Emmanuel Macron bravely declared, “We will rebuild” and set an ambi- tious timeline of completing the restoration in five years. Very few think this restora- tion can be done in this time, including the best-selling au- thor Ken Follett, who wrote a short book in the days follow- ing the fire. All proceeds from the book will be donated to the charity, La Fondation du Patrimoine. In the life of a cathedral, five years is the bat of an eye. The Notre Dame we see today was a rebuilding itself, begun in 1160. The Gothic style had be- come popular and the old ca- thedral, built in Romanesque style, seemed dowdy and old-fashioned. The basic construction of Notre Dame was done by 1345, which is a speedy pace compared tomany cathedrals. ¾ ¾ Graham Yearley Two new books pay homage to one of the global landmarks of civilisation: Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Flames and smoke billow from the Notre Dame Cathedral after a fire broke out in Paris in April 2019. PHOTO: CNS/BENOIT TESSIER, REUTERS But since then, additions have been built, the spire erected and the building electrified. The electrification may have been the cause of the fire – a spark from a decaying elec- trical wire might have ignited the debris collected under the roof beams. As there were no sprinklers, the flames would have spread quickly. But it also might have been started by the quick toss of a cigarette butt. But Follett’s point is not to investigate what happened in the 2019 fire, but to explain why cathedrals get built and whywewant to preserve them. Kathy Borrus’ book, Notre Dame de Paris: A Celebration of the Cathedral , has a similar purpose and is part of a flood of new books published since the fire. It is a picture book filled with photographs and drawings of the cathedral and its contents. There is an interesting sec- tion on the precious relics and treasures of Notre Dame and what happened to each object. For example the organ built in the 18thcenturywas already in need of restoration, but the fire further damaged it. The altar built in 1725 and topped by a statue of Mary lamenting with Jesus lying dead across her lap did survive the fire but was blackened with soot and the statue was damaged. Notre Dame has survived desecration during the French Revolution, German bomb- ings during both World War I and II, and shifts of architec- tural and decorative tastes. It will rise again. Subsequent to the publica- tion of both books, the cathe- dral’s rector told the media that the walls that remained after the fire may still collapse. The scaffolding put up be- fore the fire is exerting great pressure on the walls. If they do collapse, restoration would be made infinitely harder, if not impossible. But these books are con- cernedwithNotreDame’s past and present before the fire and this news does not alter their value as celebrations of a great cathedral. Notre-Dame: A Short Histo- ry of the Meaning of Cathe- drals by Ken Follett. Viking (2019). 62 pages. Notre Dame de Paris: A Celebration of the Cathedral by Kathy Borrus. Black Dog and Leventhal. 122 pages. - CNS BOOK REVIEWS