Pope Francis sent a message for the reopening of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, in France, this Saturday, December 7: “Today sadness and mourning give way to joy,” says the Holy Father.
Mons. Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio in France, was in charge of reading the words of the Pontiff during the solemn reopening ceremony.
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“I am very happy to join you, Your Excellency, in thought and prayer, as well as all the faithful gathered here and all those present, on this solemn day when your Cathedral is reopened for worship,” Pope Francis notes in his message.
“We all still remember the terrible fire that seriously damaged the building five years ago. Our hearts ached at the risk of seeing a masterpiece of Christian faith and architecture disappear, a millennia-old testimony of your national history,” the Pontiff continued.
“Today, sadness and mourning have given way to joy, celebration and praise. I salute all those, especially the firefighters, who worked so bravely to save this historic monument from sinking.”
Pope Francis also thanked all those who have collaborated with the reconstruction “This outpouring is a sign not only of the commitment to art and history, but also – and this is very encouraging! – the sign that the symbolic value and sacredness of such a building continues to be widely perceived, from the smallest to the largest.”
The Holy Father expressed his hope that “the rebirth of this admirable church will be a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France.”
“I invite all the baptized who will joyfully enter this cathedral to feel legitimate pride and to claim their heritage of faith. Dear faithful of Paris and France, this abode, which our heavenly Father inhabits, is yours; You are its living stones.”
“Notre Dame will soon be visited and admired again by immense crowds of people of all conditions, origins, religions, languages and cultures, many of them in search of the absolute and the meaning of their lives,” Pope Francis stressed.
To conclude, the Holy Father implored “upon the Church of France, and above all the French people, the protection of Notre Dame de Paris, I impart to you and to all those present the blessing with all my heart.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.