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The Restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral: Inspiration for American Heritage
By Carole Hornsby Haynes December 12, 2024
As Americans prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in a few days, the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral is a stark reminder of the global attack to cancel our Western culture and Chrisitan religion. There has been ongoing controversy between the French citizens, most of whom wanted to preserve their heritage, and the French government and Catholic church officials who wanted radical changes in the restoration of the cathedral. Critics compared the proposed changes to a Disney-style theme park.
The Reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral
On December 7th, heads of state, British royalty, and dignitaries gathered in Paris to attend the reopening ceremony (click here for replay) of Notre Dame Cathedral, the 861-year-old Gothic icon that was nearly destroyed by a massive inferno in 2019. A closed mass was held on Sunday at France’s most emblematic place of worship where Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich consecrated a new contemporary bronze altar. The closed mass was attended by nearly 170 Bishops from France and other nations, French priests, and 2,500 people including French President Emmanuel Macron. (Click here for guided tour of restored cathedral.)
Destruction and Restoration
Five years ago, people across the globe watched in horror as the 19th century spire and two-thirds of the roof collapsed from a roaring blaze. President Macron promised to restore the cathedral and the world responded with nearly one billion dollars in donations. Within days of the fire, however, the French government made it clear this would be a “new” Notre Dame, not a restored cathedral.
Architects from around the world offered designs for a new spire and roof. The proposals included a swimming pool and a car park on top, a rooftop villa for Quasimodo (the fictional protagonist in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame), turning the cathedral into a McDonald’s restaurant, building a translucent dome as a monument to peace, and turning the building into a giant circus with a big top replacing the roof. One architect proposed a Baccarat crystal spire that would be illuminated from within at night while French designer proposed a spire with a “monumental permanent flame covered with golden leaves.”
Catholics and traditionalist architects worldwide were outraged. Quickly Macron’s office backpedaled, announcing that the crown jewel of Paris would be restored to its former state – but only the exterior.
A radical and sacrilegious transformation was being planned for the interior. Father Gilles Drouin, advisor to the archbishop of Paris, led the restoration of the interior. Confessional boxes, altars, and classical sculptures would be either altered or replaced with contemporary art and new light and sound effects to create "emotional spaces." A "discovery trail" would lead visitors through themed chapels, including one with an environmental focus. Five chapels would be named for five continents, with multi-lingual quotes – including Mandarin – from the Bible projected onto chapel walls.
In an effort to justify his radical plans, Drouin said his proposed changes would make the cathedral more accessible to visitors “who are not always from a Christian culture.” Yet Drouin admitted that, before the devastation of the 2019 fire, more than 12 million tourists a year came to the cathedral with “most of them from non-Christian or post-Christian cultures.” Apparently it had been quite accessible despite its Christian culture.
Father Drouin’s proposal for such radical alterations to the historic Catholic cathedral was not unexpected given the leftward movement of Christian churches and their leaders with the infiltration of Communism through liberation theology, a marriage of Marxism and Christianity.
Fortunately for the survival of classical Western architecture and culture, these radical concepts were rejected in favor of a conservationist renovation that would restore the Cathedral to its pre-fire state, including using wood to rebuild the roof and restoring some of its 19th-century elements.
Reconstructing the original spire was important because, for millions who visit the landmark each year, the spire that was added in the 19th century had become part of the image of the crown jewel of Paris. This decision was not surprising since Notre Dame is a UNESCO World Heritage site and French laws require renovation and repair efforts to conserve a site’s specific character to the extent possible.
Although the restored cathedral looks quite different, it actually looks as it did when unveiled in the 12th century. Walls darkened by years of pollution from burning candles and outdoor air have been restored to their former brightness. The interior is further brightened with the installation of more than 1,000 elaborately-placed projectors designed to illuminate architectural and design features.
Some contemporary changes have been included in liturgical furniture, seating, reliquary cases, lighting
and sound. The new contemporary liturgical vestments, designed by fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, feature primary colors in geometric patterns with sharp lines.
Other contemporary interior changes are planned. Despite massive public backlash, President Macron has pushed forward with plans to replace the 19th century historic stained glass windows for six chapels on the south aisle of the cathedral's nave with contemporary designs. The windows will be replaced in 2025 with the historic windows moved to a museum. Scholars and some architects believe the plan violates the 1964 Venice Charter which states that “items of sculpture, painting or decoration which form an integral part of a monument may only be removed if this is the sole means of ensuring their preservation….the valid contributions of all periods to the building of a monument must be respected.”
The Era of Great Cathedrals in Western Europe
With the rise of Christianity in the 4th century, Europeans united in the new faith that was concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and humankind. Basing their interpretation of the 20th chapter of the Bible’s apocalyptic Book of Revelation, medieval scholars and clergy prophesized the Second Coming of Christ to be in the second millenium.
In their preparation for the Last Judgment from the 10th century on, medieval Christians built some of the most magnificent European cathedrals. The construction of Notre Dame began in 1163 with most of the work completed by 1260, although modifications were made in the following centuries. Extensive damage as well as total destruction to much of the cathedral’s religious imagery occurred in the 1790s during the French Revolution.
War on Christianity
Anti-Christian hostility is sweeping across Western Europe. Hate crimes are being committed, with the vast majority by extreme political groups as well as attacks by satanist groups and Islamist groups.
Catholic News Service reported a spike in attacks on churches in Germany, Scotland, England, France, Poland, Spain, Italy, and Austria with vandals setting fire, smashing or decapitating statues, smashing windows, and stealing religious items inside. In France, the words “Allah u Akbar,” an Arabic phrase “God is great” often left by Jihadists, were written across the door of the Church of Notre-Dame-du-Taur in Toulouse.
Extensive research by the Gatestone Institute found that nearly 3000 attacks on Christian churches, schools, cemeteries and monuments were vandalized, looted or defaced in Europe during 2019. Attacks on Christian churches and symbols are commonplace in France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Spain. The vast majority of the attacks are against Roman Catholicism, although German Protestant churches are also targets.
In France and Germany, the recent mass migration of Muslims coincides with the spike in anti-Christian attacks. Yet, official statistics about perpetrators and motives are non-existent.
In Spain, attacks are overwhelmingly by far-left activists who want to eradicate Christianity from civilization.
Perpetrators are rarely caught and, if they are, information about their identities and ethnic background is censored by the media and police. Although the suspicious blaze at Notre Dame was reported in the media, the official report was that the cause was accidental.
Anti-Christian hostility is on the rise in the United States as well. Tracking by Family Research Council shows that at least 915 hostile acts occurred between 2018 and 2023, including vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, and bomb threats. The number of attacks in 2023 was double that of 2022 and more than eight times the number in 2018.
Conclusion
The efforts to radically alter Notre Dame are merely a symptom of a greater global scheme to banish Christianity. To impose Communism or Sharia, the first step is to cancel all memory and evidence of Western culture and Christianity. The underlying pillars of Western culture are its Christian religious traditions, especially the Ten Commandments. Western culture cannot be erased until Christianity is canceled.
In America, the goal of the Cultural Revolution is being accomplished at a rapid pace: obliterate Western civilization with all of its churches, heritage, artifacts, historic documents and buildings, traditional families, whites, schools, classical music – the entire culture. In just a few years, the far left radical element has removed statue after statue, destroyed churches and religious artifacts, removed the pew nameplate of George Washington in his Anglican church, discredited founding fathers, vilified the Christian South, replaced great classical music with inferior quality repertoire, renamed military bases and ships, and removed the 109-year-old Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery with its sole purpose of healing the wounds of the Civil War and restoring national harmony.
There is already a small but growing movement to reclaim what has been stolen from our past and our institutions. Despite the contemporary changes inside Notre Dame Cathedral, the magnificient exterior with its towering spire has been restored to its former state because people united in their demand to preserve their precious heritage. We can take inspiration from this and unite to restore our own American heritage.