President-Elect Donald J. Trump joined dozens of world leaders and dignitaries on Saturday for the grand reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, five years after the famed Gothic cathedral was tragically ravaged by fire.
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On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, severely damaging much of its medieval roof and famed spire. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of hundreds of brave firefighters and emergency services, much of the 861-year-old structure, including its two bell towers, was saved from destruction.
A tourist boat in front of Notre Dame Cathedral ahead of its formal reopening for the first time since a devastating fire, in Paris, France, on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The tragic damage to the 12th-century Catholic church sparked an outpouring of support worldwide, with 340,000 people donating €900 million to the reconstruction effort.
The reconstruction was completed in just five years after a monumental effort involving some 2,000 people, including architects, artists, blacksmiths, carpenters, roofers, sculptors, and stone masons. French President Emmanuel Macron branded the project as an “insane challenge” and the “construction project of the century”.
On Saturday, tens of thousands poured into central Paris to attend the cathedral’s reopening. The monumental event also drew world leaders and dignitaries, including U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump, First Lady Jill Biden, Britain’s Prince William, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, among others who flocked to Paris to celebrate the icon of Christian heritage.
Mr Trump announced Monday that he would be attending the ceremony, writing on Truth Social: “It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago.
“President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”
Before the reopening, the president-elect travelled to the Élysée Palace for a meeting with President Macron during his first international trip since winning the election in November. According to Le Figaro, the incoming president was “received in the presidential palace by the Republican Guard with great pomp.” Volodymyr Zelensky also attended the meeting at the palace, also marking the first meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian leader since the election.
Zelensky described the meeting with Trump and Macron as “good and productive,” adding that “President Trump is, as always, resolute. I thank him.” He said that all parties “want this war to end as soon as possible and in a just way. We spoke about our people, the situation on the ground, and a just peace.”
“We agreed to continue working together and keep in contact. Peace through strength is possible,” Zelensky said.
The BBC also reported that Trump will meet in Paris with Prince William, the heir to the British throne, to discuss the importance of the “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom. This will be the first meeting between the two men since 2019 when Trump was on a state visit to Britain.
The ceremony was led by Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich, who symbolically opened the church to the public by opening Notre Dame’s ornately decorated wooden doors, which were thankfully spared from the conflagration.
“Notre Dame, model of faith, open your doors to bring together the far-flung children of God in joy,” the archbishop commanded as he knocked on the cathedral doors a symbolic three times with his wooden staff, which is called a crozier, that was crafted from a beam of the original roof of the cathedral.
The bishops and clergy of France, along with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi from Lebanon, processed into the restored cathedral.
Archbishop Ulrich will also lead the inaugural Mass on Sunday and consecrate the church’s newly designed altar.
The evening also marked the symbolic “awakening” of Notre Dame’s famed organ, an 8,000-pipe instrument which was clogged with toxic dust during the fire and painstakingly restored to its former glory since. Alongside the singing of hymns, the ceremonies will also see world-famous musicians including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Lang Lang, and soprano Pretty Yende perform.
Before the organ sounded for the first time in five years, Archbishop Ulrich sang, “Wake up, organ, sacred instrument. Sing praise to God our Creator.”
In a message read out a representative for the Vatican at the church on Saturday, Pope Francis said: “May the rebirth of Notre-Dame be the prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France”
A photo shows a television cameraman inside the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, ahead of its official reopening ceremony. (LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
During the ceremony, Mr Trump was given prime placement, sitting directly between President Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron. First Lady Jill Biden, who travelled to Paris without President Joe Biden, was given a seat next to Mrs Macron.
In a speech delivered from the Cathedral, President Macron proclaimed: “Tonight, the bells of Notre-Dame ring again… Every help, gesture, was necessary. We rediscovered what great nations could do: achieve the impossible.”
“Long live Notre-Dame de Paris, long live the Republic, and long live France,” he declared.
The ceremony offered Macron a brief reprieve from the political turmoil swirling in Paris and growing calls for the president to resign after his government collapsed this week following a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Michel Barnier, the second Macron government to fold this year and the first time since 1962 that the National Assembly ousted a prime minister.
Macron, constitutionally prohibited from calling fresh legislative elections, has few options left to him. The president has vowed to stay in office until the end of his term, meaning that he will need to find a replacement for Mr Barnier. It is unclear who would be willing to take on such a role and, more crucially, who could manage the deeply divided parliament to pass a much-needed budget as the country faces a growing debt crisis.
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