French President Emmanuel Macron will in December give an address inside Notre Dame to mark the reopening of the mighty cathedral devastated by fire in 2019, in an unusual move for a leader of the secular state, the archbishop of Paris said.
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich told AFP in an interview that Macron’s speech for the reopening on Saturday, December 7 will be one of the centrepieces of a weekend of events that will include the first mass since the fire, the following day.
The fire on April 15, 2019 shocked France and the world, causing significant damage to the mediaeval cathedral that is inscribed by UNESCO as world heritage.
During the ceremony “the president will say: ‘We have kept the promise'” of a reopening in five years that he made in an address to the nation after the fire, Ulrich said in an interview.
Macron will speak “in the cathedral” and not outside, he emphasised.
It is extremely unusual for a political leader to be allowed to address the faithful inside a Catholic religious building. France is by its constitution a secular country with a strict division between church and state.
– ‘Reopening period’ –
Ulrich said the ceremony could see a ribbon-cutting to mark the opening.
“But what is certain is that I will knock on the door of the cathedral” to signify “that once again the clergy and the people are in the cathedral for the service of God,” he said.
The ceremony will also see a performance on the famous organ of the cathedral that was “completely dismantled, cleaned and put back into working order” after being damaged by dust during the fire.
The next day, Sunday, December 8, will see “the first mass during which I will consecrate the new altar,” added Ulrich.
Due to the limited capacity of 1,500 places in the cathedral, the reopening will be extended, with mass celebrated repeatedly over the subsequent eight days.
The “reopening period” of Notre Dame will last six months until Pentecost which falls on June 8 in 2025, said Ulrich.
Macron in December said he had invited Pope Francis to the reopening of the cathedral but the head of the Catholic church announced in September, to the surprise of some observers, that he would not be coming.
The French Catholic church has in recent years been rocked by a succession of sexual abuse allegations against clerics, including most recently the monk known as Abbe Pierre who became a household name for his aid to the destitute.
Ulrich’s predecessor Michel Aupetit, who regularly appeared on television in the wake of the disaster and helped to rally funds for the restoration work, in 2021 resigned over an “ambiguous” relationship with a woman.
Prosecutors opened a probe but the investigation was closed after it found no offence was committed.
