Notre Dame Cathedral Reopening Ceremony Kicks Off in Paris
People arrive for the opening ceremony of the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral in Paris, France, 07 December 2024. The Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral reopens on 07 December after nearly six years of renovation work following its destruction by a fire on 15 April 2019. Photo: EFE/EPA/TERESA SUAREZ
December 7, 2024 Hour: 1:28 pm
After five and a half years of intense reconstruction work after a fire destroyed part of the religious precinct, the iconic gothic cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, reopens this Saturday in a secular ceremony, first and then a Catholic mass offered by the Archbishop of the French capital.
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Initially, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, was to take the floor on the esplanade of the cathedral a few minutes after the beginning of the ceremony, scheduled for 19:00 hours, to have two very marked times: an official ceremony, political and secular, on the outside and another on the inside, more purely religious, with the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, as protagonist.
With some adjustments due bad weather, Macron will receive on the esplanade of Notre Dame the about forty heads of state and government who will attend the ceremony from 18:15 hours including the kings of Belgium, Philip and Matilde; the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier; the first lady of the United States, Jill Biden; the head of state of Paraguay, Santiago Peña; or the head of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi.
Also among the guests will be Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the next tenant of the White House, Donald Trump, on which will be his first international trip after winning the US presidential election last November.
Other personalities have had to decline the invitation to reopen, such as the Kings of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, and Pope Francis will not be at Notre Dame either, although the archbishop of Paris will read a message from him.
The events will take place amid a strong security deployment with 6,000 agents, an anti-drone surveillance device and closed shops on the perimeter around the cathedral for the whole weekend, which has led to some complaints.
The reopening events will last until around 21:00 (20:00 GMT) and, according to the original plan, they were supposed to lead to a large concert organized by French public television outside the cathedral, but this plan will also depend on time.
The 8th will be a more religious program with a mass at 10:30 (09:30 GMT), in which the altar will be consecrated, attended by 150 bishops and other guests. In the afternoon, another mass will be celebrated for 2,500 faithful and Parisian neighbors.
Fuente: France 24 // EFE