The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Notre Dame’s missed Christmas Mass is first since at least 1803
The structure remains in an extremely precarious state.
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is not holding Christmas services this week for the first time in over two centuries, as workers continue to shore up the fragile building after a devastating fire.
The 850-year-old cathedral has been closed to the public since a blaze tore through the structure in April, destroying ancient timbers in its roof and collapsing the spire.
Records show that Christmas Masses have been celebrated at Notre Dame every year since at least 1803, after the cathedral was handed back to the Catholic Church following the French Revolution, according to André Finot, a spokesman for the cathedral.
Finot said that the cathedral’s rector would instead hold this year’s Christmas service at the Église St.-Germain l’Auxerrois, a church near the Louvre where Notre Dame’s religious services have been relocated since the fire.
President Emmanuel Macron of France vowed after the fire that Notre Dame would be rebuilt in five years, a tight deadline that authorities are sticking to so far.
Authorities caution that Notre Dame is in an extremely precarious state. The vault is still punctured by gaping holes; the flying buttresses are propped up by giant wooden blocks; and 250 tons of scaffolding tubes — from renovation work that was underway when the fire occurred — are welded together from the heat of the blaze and weighing down the structure.
President Emmanuel Macron of France vowed after the fire that Notre Dame would be rebuilt in five years, a tight deadline that authorities are sticking to so far.