Amazing story, of course, and we'll be seeing many, many
articles in the near future and documentaries on down the road regarding
the Holy Week Fire at Notre-Dame de Paris.
I've always liked Gothic best, and there's an old saying: "Byzantine church architecture brings Heaven down to Earth, but Gothic does your praying for you."
I once quoted that to a Protestant friend of mine, a learned, widely
experienced man, and he laughed for some time at the denseness of
Catholics. But there it is. The Religion is indeed about Salvation, but
Salvation is participating in the Incarnation of Christ, bringing God
into us, ourselves, through the Most Holy Eucharist (something these
churches were built precisely for). The Incarnation and the Resurrection
is all about fulfilling the redemption of Creation -- starting with us,
of course, but spreading out to everything, and in light of that
belief, a Gothic masterpiece is an integral part of that Salvation. (And
we humans were made in God's image, remember: He creates and builds; so
do we.) Never forget that the First Covenant was the one God Himself
made with Creation, when He blessed it and sealed that blessing on the
Seventh Day. (Genesis 2:2-3) The Most Holy Eucharist is the Seventh
Sacrament, the fulfillment of all the others. They're all part of each,
building on the ones going before, till they come full circle, Satan
flunks out; God wins. (Good) Angels are in awe of this; they spend their
version of time contemplating it. And the Sons of Adam and Daughters of
Eve should too.
Divine symmetry, like one of Notre Dame's blessedly preserved rose windows.
Meanwhile, back to reporting...
French
President Macron says they'll rebuild the church in five years.
Interesting. Note that the French state owns all the churches in France.
So, in whatever way they want, they call the shots.
We've
all seen lots of incredible photos all around the Internet. Especially
evocative is the one of the interior of the choir with the cross
standing, and the Pieta beneath it. Interesting, it is said the high
altar is intact while the Novus Ordo Cranmer table altar is either
smashed or covered in rubble. Generally speaking, though, it is very
impressive that this old girl, this 800-years-young building held up to
such a fire. She did her builders proud and reconstruction certainly
looks quite possible at this point. The French seemed determined and
willing to pay for it. 13 million people visit Notre Dame de Paris every year. Thus,
a cynic would say that if only as a tourist attraction, they'll have to
try to rebuild her. But I think also this will stir the heart, and the
soul, of la belle France. Hope so, at least.
And
for the larger Church too, not only the Church in France, which is run
by N.O. prelates (as it is in most countries) but has a very large
(proportionately) Latin Mass laity. I've seen various article over the
past few years suggesting that as many or more priests are ordained each
year in France to say the Traditional Mass as the new one. Fascinating
trend.
It took almost nine hours to bring the fire under control, more to finish it off.
The fire fighters deserve tremendous praise. Parisian firefighters, Pompiers Paris,
are well-known to be world-class excellent; this was a heroic effort on
their part. (Apparently they would have had to go inside to fight this
fire successfully, with all that heavy timber burning and falling.) I
found this U.S. firefighter's comments fascinating: https://twitter.com/GreggFavre/status/1117847726786371585
Lots of expert information and explanation from Greg Favre.
An excerpt:
Paris fire
brigade chief Jean-Claude Gallet said "we can consider that the main
structure of Notre-Dame has been saved and preserved" as well as the two
towers.
That's all miraculous in itself.
The
Medieval masons who built these churches were geniuses, of course, and
superb craftsmen. Vauban, the famous military and fortress architect to
Louis XIV, upon first seeing 13th century Coutances Cathedral, exclaimed: "Who was the sublime madman who launched such an edifice into the air." Great quote, well worth memorizing.
That's
just one example. We have the details to rebuild it. Also, of course,
none of these cathedrals are any longer purely medieval. A Commentator
named Keeler at TheConservativeTreehouse pointed out about that spire that fell, and other items:
"As
I said below, much of the glass work, the spire, and the sculptures
around the spire date to the 19th century. Some of the glass work dates
to the 1960s. The organ dates to the 19th century and the underwent
significant changes during the 1990s. By the early 19th century much of
the interior was in poor condition and was subject to major renovation."
An excerpt:
But Prof. Jeffrey F.
Hamburger, a medieval art historian at Harvard, said that there is “no reason
to be nostalgic or romantic about the dirt.” The association of Gothic
buildings with “dark, brooding gloom” is “fundamentally misguided,” he said;
they are “not monuments to melancholy.”
The restoration
seeks to reconstitute a temple of light, to challenge the popular perception of
Gothic dejection. But in doing so, it raises an intriguing question: What
happens when our inherited assumptions about the past come into contact with layers
of accumulated myth?
About the only continental Gothic cathedral I remember being in was the Straßburg
one (thanks to Markus). The windows were great but the very darkened
interior made if feel like a cavern, so I appreciate that point about
there's "no reason to be nostalgic about the dirt." When finished, These
churches were, when new, glowing inside and out, like jewel boxes. Even
the Parthenon, when it was new back in Periclean Athens, was painted.
Hagia Sophia, when finished, was hardly dark and gloomy!
Many
of the big Gothic cathedrals were built in the 13th century (Notre Dame
being started in 1163 and built into the 13th century, and Chartres has
a similar history, with the latest rebuilding starting in the 1190s and
incorporating an earlier church). The 12th and 13th centuries were the
Golden Age of the Catholic Church, seconded only by the
Counter-Reformation Church. The Golden Age was a recovery period after
the dismal nadir of the papacy (and least until modern times) in the
10th century. So it is no wonder the churches built were sunny,
brilliant, scintillating -- a good match for the sunny theology of the
age.
In any event, however it
proceeds, intense inspection and investigation would have to occur
before anyone rebuilds Notre-Dame de Paris using what is still standing.
Five years is, possibly, too optimistic.
An excerpt:
The chief architect of Cologne
cathedral says it could take decades to repair the damage caused to the Notre
Dame cathedral by a massive fire, AP reports.
Peter Fuessenich, who oversees all
construction work for the Gothic cathedral in the German city, told local
broadcaster RTL on Tuesday that "it will certainly take years, perhaps
even decades, until the last damage caused by this terrible fire will be
completely repaired."
Cologne cathedral was heavily
damaged during World War II and work to repair it is still ongoing more than 70
years later.
And of course few craftsmen exist (they do exist, though very small in number) who could work on the rebuilding, yet even so, as one commentator wrote, "The roof was built with the last of the primordial forest, which no longer exists, no trees in France left big enough."
Non-French wood would have to be used, or imported, or laminated, or
metal used -- the latter perhaps better protection against fire.
Rebuilding normally would be cost prohibitive. But of course this being Notre Dame de Paris,
they'll not use that as an excuse. Though as I wrote above, cost isn't
the only issue. As far as I understand it, if you had the money to
recreate an SSJ Duesenberg boat-tailed speedster, or a Phaeton, whatever
body style you wanted, it would not only be simply too cost prohibitive
to recreate the famous straight-eight engine and drive train, but
absolutely impossible to recreate the car bodies, as the craftsmen who
made them were direct descendants of the buggy and coach makers. They
had arts and methods we've lost the skill to reproduce. You'd end up
with a simulacrum, not the real thing.
And
also a medieval cathedral was both a work of piety and civic pride. In
the "Multi-Kulti" West of today, how do you recreate that?
Pledges
of money are pouring in, as the cliché puts it, with a couple of French
billionaires pledging 100+ million Euros. It can be done, sure. But
where are the medieval "The singing masons building roofs of gold, the
civil citizens kneading up the honey, the poor mechanic porters crowding
in." (Henry V, Act 1, Scene 2) Stone-mason craftsmen do still exist,
and a good many are French, actually, though as I noted, they are very
few.
I
know when ancient craftsmen worked on the Parthenon or the Temple of
Zeus at Olympia, or the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, they used
jewelers' tools. Incredible, but true.
I've seen a lot of comment that unlike, say, Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris has been pretty much
an art museum, just too located in just too touristy a spot for many religious purposes. Government
owned it is, etc., yet I know the intensely beautiful (if that's a phrase)
Chartres hosts Traditionalist Catholic pilgrimages, but I've never heard
of Paris Notre Dame used in that way.
Finally, investigations into what caused the fire have begun.
Most everyone is saying it was accidental, a result of recent
restoration work. Probably that's very likely true. But regardless of
that, French Catholic churches have faced an incredible stream of
vandalism over the past year. Over 800 attacks, actually. It's a story
not much reported on.
And of
course, Islam has a long history of desecrating churches. Whatever
caused the Notre Dame fire, these continuing attacks have to be reported
in the media and the general population must discuss them. How many of
you knew of this tidbit of news?
Before Christmas 2016, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany—where more than a million Muslims reside—some 50 public Christian statues (including
of Jesus) were beheaded and crucifixes broken.
Conspiracy theories are lining up:
So
far, I'm seeing three basic conspiracy theories on what happened.
First, the French government did it so as to undercut the ongoing
"Yellow-Jacket" rebellion. What better way to "unite France" by way of
an accident that burned up -- but not too badly -- the most iconic
building in France?
Second, Muslims did it, or, less likely,
"militant secularists". The Get Religion article above records some of
the incredible attacks on French Catholic Churches, and the astounding
silence on this news.
Third, were this actually a Muslim
attack, you'll never know (and still less if was the government!). The
powers that be will keep it silent.
I am
not much into conspiracy theories myself. That first theory I noted is
another version of the "Bush did it" 9/11 conspiracy theory. As we're
seeing with the "Russian Collusion Delusion" in the U.S., such
government cover-ups usually get revealed. It might take awhile, but too
many people need to be involved to pull such a thing off, and sooner or
later, the truth gets out.
Otherwise, if the
Muslims did it, how'd they get a fire going in the roof area? They'd
have to be employees of one of the restoration outfits. Not impossible,
but still unlikely.
Whatever about all that, perhaps
such a catastrophe will "wake people up" to what is being lost in the
Faith? We can only pray so. With most Vatican II Catholics not knowing
about the miracle of the Holy Eucharist, or that the Mass is a
sacrifice, the raison d'être of these buildings is no longer
understood.
We've a steep, steep hill to climb.
Some interesting articles:
An excerpt:
At the time I write this, for instance, the New York Times headlines
on the story had exactly zero religious references. They did mention,
of course, the building as “an iconic symbol of the beauty and history
of Paris” and “a jewel of Medieval Gothic architecture.”
Here's
a Ross Douthat article from the NYTimes, to give you a taste of what a
"conservative" New York Times Catholic writes about:
An excerpt:
The cathedral will be rebuilt; the cross and altar and much of the
interior survived. But all preservation is provisional. The real
challenge for Catholics, in this age of general post-Christian cultural
exhaustion, is to look at what our ancestors did and imagine what it
would mean to do that again, to build anew,
to leave something behind that could stand a thousand years and still
have men and women singing “Salve Regina” outside its cruciform walls,
as Parisians did tonight while Notre-Dame burned.
An excerpt:
The primary function of a church, on the other hand, is something
entirely different. Its purpose is not to ensure basic temporal
survival, a purpose that could be met adequately, albeit unevenly, by a
wide variety of structures. Rather, a church (small “c”) functions as a
place to prepare for eternal life those who use it, through the ministry
of the Church (big “C”) founded by Jesus Christ. In fact, to paraphrase
Le Corbusier in a way that he would find absolutely appalling—which,
quite frankly, pleases me no end—we can state that “A church is a
machine for living.”
An excerpt:
Watching several hours of television coverage, it became pretty apparent
that it really mattered whether newsrooms had people involved in the
coverage who knew anything about Catholicism and its sacraments. It was,
to be blunt, the difference between news about a fire in a symbolic
building, like a museum, that is important in French culture and
coverage of the near total destruction of a Catholic holy place, a
cathedral, at the start of Holy Week.
"The burning of Notre Dame is not a challenge to restore a jewel of
Western civilization, it’s a call to repent and believe the gospel."
A Rod Dreher article:
Dreher
includes a religious conversion experience he had upon first entering
Chartres as a 17-year-old. And then a conversation with a "respected
French philosopher" that is quite something to read. But Dreher's
religious experience in Chartres brings to mind the saying "Byzantine
church architecture brings Heaven down to Earth, but Gothic does your
praying for you." An excerpt:
The great and glorious rose window on the west portal of the
cathedral held on through the inferno! That entrance is known as the
Portal of the Last Judgement. The rose window itself is a symbol of the
whole of the universe — all of time, and all of human life — centered in
perfect harmony around the God-Man and His mother, on whose lap He sits
in the very center of the rose: the King of Creation on his throne. (A Yale professor gives some detail about that window in this short video here.)
In the Middle Ages, when Notre Dame de Paris was built, people read
the visible universe allegorically. Cathedrals were called “poor
people’s books,” because even the illiterate could be taught how to
“read” the symbolism in the glass and stones of cathedrals. Medieval
people, like most peoples before them, “read” meaning into the created
world as well. At its worst, this was augury, the process of divining
the future and the will of the gods by ritual — something that the
Bible, in fact, forbids. But it is normal, and well within the Biblical
worldview, to regard events in the world as potential messages from God. The challenge is to discern both when an event has meaning, and what that meaning is.
Interesting music history
Just a small sampling. Notre-Dame de Paris (and Chartres and so many others) will go on.
