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Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral is due to reopen on December 7, five and a half years after the fire that ravaged it.
PARIS – A weekend for history, and an extension of the celebration over six months. The Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich outlined for AFP the contours of the reopening of Notre-Dame of Parisscheduled for December 7 then commemorated until June 8, 2025. On the program: a speech byEmmanuel Macron and a “awakening of the organ”.
“The important weekend is December 7-8”explained the archbishop in this interview conducted on Wednesday October 30. Saturday 7 will mark “the moment of the opening of the cathedral” and this “for the first time since April 15, 2019”date of the fire which ravaged the cathedral, he added.
During this ceremony, “the President of the Republic will speak to say that we have kept the bet” of a reopening in five years, added Mgr Ulrich. Emmanuel Macron will speak “in the cathedral” and no on the square : “it was too complicated to imagine that we would pile up people in front of the cathedral and go back, the matter is too long”added the archbishop, who will detail the ceremony on November 13.
Even if he “we must not imagine that the parishes will be able to come in crowds”Mgr Ulrich insisted that“there will be a representation of the parishes for December 7 and 8”.
The archbishop will “knock on the door of the cathedral”
Asked how the ceremony would take place, Mgr Ulrich assured: “They’re not going to give me the keys because I’ve never lost them”the Catholic Church being the“assignee” of the cathedral. “We may cut a ribbon, but what is certain is that I will knock on the door of the cathedral” to mean “that once again the clergy and the people are in the cathedral for the service of God”he added.
The ceremony will include a “awakening oforgan » who was “completely dismantled, cleaned, and put back into working order” after being damaged by dust during the fire, and “the magnificat which will conclude the vespers prayer”.
The next day, Sunday December 8, will take place “the first mass during which I will consecrate the new altar”added Mgr Ulrich. Due to the limited capacity of the cathedral (1,500 seats), the reopening will continue with “a major event over eight days”, where practically the same mass will be celebrated again.
Then, beyond, “the period known as the reopening of Notre-Dame will last six months, until Pentecost which falls on June 8” with “three masses every day” as well as parish and diocese pilgrimages.
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