Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J., considers the absence of serious articulation of Notre-Dame’s religious meaning and of Christian influence on civilization in the West in the aftermath of the cathedral fire. For two days there was much discussion of French identity, elevated talk of global culture, and well-meaning but predictable religious commentary. Nevertheless, Notre-Dame is Mary’s shrine, a prayer in stone that gave Mary and Western Christianity a new human face. Since the French Revolution, Catholicism and the French state have had a strained relationship. Try as it might, France cannot throw off its Catholic patrimony. The crowds of Parisians and visitors praying and singing hymns as they watched the fire burn and waited for it to be extinguished witness to the survival of faith in our secular age. This article was published on America online.
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