Notre Dame in a secular age

Reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris Five years after a fire, Europe’s glories are reflected at a time when the continent seems intent on showing its worst. President Macron calls the restoration “a human adventure of epic proportions” and it is difficult not to feel a sense of reverence for God and man for the revival of this place of prayer, the foundation stone of which was first laid in 1163 of the common era .

Credit goes to the handiwork of more than 2,000 craftsmen who restored Notre Dame to its medieval grandeur. The stained glass is sumptuous, and the interior is creamy and bright. The reconstruction cost more than 700 million euros and donations came from more than 150 countries. More than 200 companies lent their expertise and firefighters saved France’s greatest relic, the Crown of Thornes, from the blaze.

The Paris of 2024, however, has a long way to go to show that it is worthy of this Gothic wonder. How does the concept of secularism did he work for france? It embodies such a rigid principle – if principle is the right word – of secularism, one cannot help but wonder if it casts a pall over religion itself. At times, the Fifth Republic seems intent on unleashing the civilizational achievements accumulated over the past nine centuries.

France has now rebuilt Notre Dame, but will its banks prosper in a country known as the “greatest daughter of the Church”? France keeps no official religious statistics, but by all accounts the ranks of the faithful are thinning. The wise Enlightenment Voltaire once wrote, “Once we have destroyed the Jesuits, we will have our own way with the infamous thing”—that is, the Church. Will decline achieve what total destruction could not?

Contemporary France was hardly exempt from religious fanaticism – it just came from radical Islam. Almost 11% of the population are immigrants, mostly from North Africa. From the Bataclan attacks to the attacks on his offices Charlie Hebdo to the relentless attacks against the Jews – the murders of Sarah Halimi, Mireille Knoll and others. Almost three in oner French Jews experienced anti-Semitism.

They just have problems it got worse since October 7, with more and more French Jews finding life in France to be intolerable. Our Michel Gurfinkiel rEPORTS that Mr Macron “changed repeatedly and dramatically between pro-Israel and anti-Israel positions”. To his left is the anti-Semite Jean-Luc Mélenchon. To Mr Macron’s right is Marine Le Pen, who has backed the Jews – a shift of her own for France’s right.

It would be nice if Mr Macron’s visit to Notre Dame – the cathedral opens to the public later this week – brings the president some divine wisdom. Backing off, as Mr. Macron did, on a pledge to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu if he lands on French soil is a good start, but France’s blunders have emboldened forces hostile not only to Jews but to the creed that inspired the building of Notre Dame – and its restoration.