The first Mass after the devastating fire was held in the restored Notre-Dame Cathedral

(from our special correspondent)

Already half an hour before the start of the Holy Mass, the bells of Notre-Dame rang out again. The ceremony was attended by 2,500 guests, including the French President Emmanuel Macron and a number of foreign statesmen who watched the Saturday ceremony in the nave of the temple. However, the already elected US President Donald Trump did not come.

150 bishops from all over the world, a hundred priests from Paris parishes and believers from the Diocese of Paris also arrived for the Sunday ceremony. However, Pope Francis did not attend Saturday’s ceremonial re-opening, nor Sunday’s mass.

The head of the Catholic Church only sent a message, which Archbishop Ulrich read before the participants of the Saturday ceremony. In it, Francis described the reopening of Notre-Dame as a “joyful day” and expressed the hope that “the rebirth of the cathedral will become a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France.”

In this context, the Pope supported the idea that the entrance to the temple would remain free even after its reconstruction. Visitors should be “welcomed with open arms” in Notre-Dame, wrote František.

He thus supported the position of the Diocese of Paris, which opposed the plan of the now-retiring Minister of Culture Rachida Datiová to charge five euros (126 CZK) for the entrance to the temple, with the fact that the collected money would be used to repair church monuments throughout France.

The diocese finally decided that entrance to Notre-Dame will not be paid, just like before the fire in 2019. Due to the expected high interest in visiting the tabernacle after its renovation, a prior online reservation on the cathedral’s website will be necessary. At the same time, the long queues that formed in front of the temple in the time before the fire are broken down.

The reservation platform was launched in French and English already at the beginning of this week, but it is completely overwhelmed. Those interested will have to arm themselves with patience.

Masses are also of great interest. Another ceremony will take place on Sunday evening and will be held throughout the coming week. The temple will return to its usual rhythm only on December 16, when it will be open daily from 7:45 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Notre-Dame has an area of ​​six thousand square meters and can accommodate a maximum of 2,500 people at a time. The cathedral, also known as the Church of the Mother of God, is one of the symbols of Paris and before the fire, it was visited by 13 million people a year. It is now expected that up to 15 million people could visit the monument annually.