Happened Again -- Another Church Burning In France! Notre-Dame in Paris Up In Flames - 15 April 2019

Credit: "Smoke and flames rise during a fire at the landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral in central Paris on Monday. (Photo: Pierre Galey/AFP/Getty Images)"

It is sad to see such a venerable cathedral being consumed by fire.  The church should be restored to its original façade.  It is also sad to know that Catholicism has been consumed by secularism. This, too, requires restoration to what Christ intended, a more difficult task than rebuilding a structure.

Notre-Dame Cathedral is not a museum with a souvenir shop.  It is a place to be close to God, to awaken the conscience deep within and examine it with honesty, a place where the peace of Christ is able to enter through earnest supplication and repentance.  With hearts and minds entrenched in the secular world of consumption, relativism, entertainment and politics, even a church as venerable as Notre-Dame Cathedral is of no use.  It becomes another building to visit, to photograph and to use as a background for selfies to show that "I was there."

The Catholic church was not built for tourism.  Inside a true Catholic church are kneelers.  They are there for people to kneel and pray.  When people do not have faith, do not pray, relegate Christ to a place in the periphery, of indifference, then there is no need for a church, in France or anywhere else, and there would be no need to rebuild Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

However, for the many (even a few) faithful Catholics who pray and attend Mass at the Cathedral, it must be restored.  For them, it is God's house where they can go and be comforted.  It is a place of peace for them and for all who enter who have no malevolence in their hearts.

On a personal note, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is loved and is missed.  He recalls the last time he was there, as he was walking away he turned and looked back at the front of the cathedral, wanting to remain but could not and had to move on, not knowing if and when he would return.  He never expected that the cathedral that had stood for centuries that he had entered with love on his many visits would leave him before he left the world.