Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Matt Malone, S.J.April 19, 2019
Flames and smoke rise from Notre Dame cathedral as it burns in Paris, Monday, April 15, 2019. Massive plumes of yellow brown smoke is filling the air above Notre Dame Cathedral and ash is falling on tourists and others around the island that marks the center of Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)  

Editor’s Note: The day before this issue [April 29] went to press, we watched on our newsroom monitors the devastating fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. As of this writing, the fire has been extinguished and, while the cause and the full extent of the damage are unknown, much of this treasure of our Christian patrimony lies in ashes. Thanks be to God, no one was killed.

How do we make sense of such an event? Yesterday, a member of our editorial staff made an attempt. I share it here, a reflection by a young man about this 800-year-old symbol of our enduring faith.

Read his reflection here: Grieving the fire of Notre Dame during Holy Week

Matt Malone, S.J.

More: Europe / Lent
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Michael Becker
6 years 2 months ago

Sad, but not a sad as the inability of the "Church" to deal with the sex abuse scandal. Does God directly intervene in our daily lives? Is he angry with His "fans?" Is the fire an expression of His anger?

The latest from america

In his message for the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Leo XIV encouraged parishes to put more effort into caring for the elderly.
Amid concern over immigration enforcement raids in the area, the bishop of San Bernardino, California, on July 8 issued a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass for the faithful if they fear for their well-being.
Father Joshua Whitfield of Dallas, Texas spoke to OSV News after the devastating flash flooding in Texas on July 4.
Although I had set out to answer the question, “Who is Pope Leo XIV?” the question I had succeeded in answering was “Who is Robert Prevost?”
Colleen DulleJuly 10, 2025