Notre Dame Cathedral Paris, France, Official Reopening Ceremony with 40 Dignitaries Including President-Elect Trump and 170 Bishops - FULL VIDEO


Notre Dame Cathedral magnificent reopening with many dignitaries from around the world.
The doors of the restored Notre-Dame Cathedral, in Paris, France, were officially reopened to the public during a ceremony on December 7th evening a little over five years after a fire hit the famous cathedral's roof, frame, and spire. The restauration cost approximately $800 Million USD with 340,000 donors.
The celebration, started at about 7:20 p.m. local time, and was attended by about 1,500 people, including around 40 heads of state, with France President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Jill Biden (wife of President Joe Biden), Prince William, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Many celebrities were in attendance including Elon Musk.

There were 170 bishops from France and around the world who assisted in the ceremony, which included a message from Pope Francis, who did not attend. Notably, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai of Antioch, were in attendance.
There was a large security force of some 6,000 police and gendarmes for the event, citing a “very high level of terrorist threat.” Space was provided for up to 40,000 people outside the cathedral.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who was initially scheduled to speak on the cathedral’s forecourt to respect the law of separation between the Church and the state, actually spoke within the Cathedral due to the weather, as announced in a press release from the Archdiocese of Paris.
He voiced “the gratitude of the French nation” to the cathedral’s rebuilders during his address, Macron said that Notre Dame “tells us how much meaning and transcendence help us to live in this world.”
The bell of Notre-Dame, known as the bourdon, rang out across Paris for the 1st time since the fire. This was followed by reopening office, begun with three knocks on the cathedral’s central portal, the Portal of the Last Judgement, by the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich. The opening of the doors was set to the music of the polyphonic piece Totus Tuss, composed in 1987 by Henryk Gorecki during John Paul II’s visit to Poland, and sung by the 150 young members of the Maîtrise (choir) de Notre Dame.

“May the rebirth of this admirable Church be a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France,” Pope Francis said in a letter read by the apostolic nuncio of France, Monsignor Celestino Migliore, There was a tribute to the firefighters who saved the 800-year-old cathedral from the flames. the French president’s speech. “I invite all the baptized who will joyfully enter this cathedral to feel a legitimate pride and reclaim their faith heritage,” he added.

There was also a blessing of the great 300 year-old organ whose pipes had remained clogged with lead dust following the 2019 fire.
After singing the Magnificat and reciting the Our Father, the ceremony concluded with a final blessing and the singing of the Te Deum.
At the end of the religious ceremony, there was a concert organized and broadcast by France Télévisions and Radio France featured internationally renowned artists including Chinese pianist Lang Lang, South African soprano Pretty Yende, and Franco-Swiss tenor Benjamin Bernheim.

The consecration Mass for the cathedral’s new main altar is scheduled for Sunday at 10:30 a.m. local time, once more in the presence of the French President and religious leaders. The cathedral itself was not desecrated by the fire, and Archbishop Aupetit celebrated a Hoy Mass there two months later.

Celebrations concerning the reopening of Notre-Dame will continue until December 16, with each day devoted to honoring different communities and groups, including firefighters and patrons. At the end of this octave, the cathedral will return to its usual schedule.

FULL TEXT - Homily of Mgr Laurent Ulrich – Office of the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris – Saturday December 7, 2024

Only the spoken word is authentic.

It is a true praise that we address to God the Father of all, on this blessed evening. We have been waiting for this day for five years and here we are! We give thanks for this incredible project, carried out with great energy, but also with a great will of all the stakeholders to make it succeed for the joy of all, obviously; for the satisfaction of having taken up an incredible challenge; and, it must not be forgotten to say, for the reputation of France whose companies have demonstrated their immense know-how in the restoration of the old! A beautiful praise to God who has given us the ability to make possible what, a priori, did not seem so: "He raises the weak from the dust, he raises the poor from the ashes, so that he may sit among princes, among the princes of his people", says the psalmist.

In fact, it is not only princes, leaders, and notables who have their place in the Church; we want those who usually do not feel worthy to come to it.

So many men and women do not think that they are invited to enter a church, because they believe that the church is reserved for those who have been attending it forever, for those who know the codes that are respected there, for those who know how to sing, for those who will be able to give their offering, for those who are in the right moral line, for those who have relationships! The cornerstone of this building - since the word church is both the name of a building and that of a community - is Christ, as the apostle Paul says to the Christians of the city of Ephesus, a very young Christian community that he has seen grow and develop as a beautiful brotherhood of believers.

And this means that the door is open to all, even if he is passing through, if he is a stranger, if he is not a regular; here of course, he will be able to remain in his condition, not become a follower of Christ, and remain as a visitor who finds in this place beauty, delight, meditation, inner peace and a feeling of a beneficial, reassuring presence. But also Christ will open the door of his heart to him.

God took human flesh from the Virgin Mary whom we honor here; this house, this distinguished church, this cathedral, so harmonious in its proportions and entirely turned toward the mystery of Christ, is the sign of the immense joy of believers and of millions of men and women, children, the elderly, the sick and the handicapped.

This church, this cathedral that speaks to so many people, has crossed the centuries, keeping its very recognizable identity, and has also been enriched over the centuries with expressions that have made it familiar in every era. And by an astonishing mystery, it has found in our century a fame that has justified this care that we take of it. It is like a message that crosses eras and borders.

You who enter here, be welcome; whether you are Christians or not, believers or not, the Virgin Mary extends her arms to you, listens to you and presents to you her Son Jesus to whom be all honor and glory, today and for all centuries!

Mgr Laurent Ulrich,
Archbishop of Paris


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