Free Republic

PARIS - Amidst both pain and hope, Parisian faithful found a new home in the Basilica of Saint-Sulpice for the chrism Mass yesterday evening, after a blaze nearly destroyed the famed Cathedral of Notre Dame on Monday. “It’s sad, it’s sad what happened,” Brother Federico told Crux, “but we go forward.” “The essential is Jesus and not a cathedral,” he said, adding that “our life is not based on a building but on Christ.” This mixture of passion and hope for the future was present in the homily given by the Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit at the Mass. “Our...

FYI: In the wake of the great Notre Dame fire, the French video game company Ubisoft has decided to make its popular video game Assassin's Creed Unity free through April 25th, allowing gamers to "experience the majesty and beauty of the cathedral." The gothic cathedral figures centrally in the game. Start your download (available only for PC users) here. Once you download the game, you’ll own it forever in your Uplay games library.

Notre Dame was most likely targeted.

Easter week is the holiest week for Christians. What a week we have had this year.Early this week, we watched in horror and devastation as the Notre Dame Cathedral was consumed by flame and the cathedral's spire collapsed.  Many of us felt a deep sense of loss and grief. Yes, we were concerned about the priceless relics, the art and building. But as Christians, we couldn't help wonder what does this mean to our faith and what symbolism or lesson should we draw from the burning of one of the most celebrated Christian churches during holy week.  After all, we...

First does the soul of a nation, then the buildings fall.

Earlier this week, Ubisoft contributed €500,000, or about $564,775, to the Notre-Dame restoration effort in the wake of a fire that severely damaged the historic cathedral. The publisher also made Assassin’s Creed Unity, which features a recreation of Notre-Dame, free to download on PC for a week. As a result, Steam users have plastered the game’s review section with positive reviews containing messages of support for Notre-Dame. Since April 16, Unity has received nearly 800 new reviews, the vast majority of them positive. Still, there’s something to be said for the preservation of beloved monuments and spaces, even if it’s...

President Macron’s speech to the French nation about the fire that destroyed so much of Notre Dame contained a terrible threat: he said that the cathedral would be rebuilt, to be even more beautiful than before. This might seem an innocuous, even laudable aim, but the announcement of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe that a competition would be held to design “a spire suited to the techniques and challenges of our time” should send a chill down the spine of anyone familiar with the efforts of modern architects in Paris, the effects of which can be seen all around the city....

Following the horrifying fire that badly damaged one of the world’s great treasures, the mainstream media is pushing the storyline that the fire that ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was caused by an “electrical short circuit.” But the story in the Daily Mail lacks any evidence to back up that claim. A French judicial police official said investigators brought in to work out the cause of the inferno made the claims -- despite them not having been given access to the church yet for safety reasons. The official, who spoke anonymously about the ongoing investigation, said the monument...

The Wi-Fi on my flight from Rome to Newark wasn't working, so phones were buzzing about Notre Dame as soon as we hit the runway. After the initial shock and sadness, gratitude was expressed. There are upsides to being disconnected: At least we didn't have to watch something we couldn't control on live television. Before we knew much of anything, including the cause of the fire or the extent of the damage, that seemed to be an instant lesson. I've never been to Paris, so I've never been to the cathedral there. But on Monday I did the closest thing...

SNIP On Thursday, Paris police investigators said they think an electrical short-circuit most likely caused the fire. The Parisien newspaper has reported that investigators are considering whether the fire could be linked to a computer glitch or related to temporary elevators used in the renovation that was underway at the time the cathedral caught fire. Chauvet said there were fire alarms throughout the building, which he described as “well protected.” Charlotte Hubert, president of a group of French architects who specialize in historic monuments, told BFM television that experts plan to spread a custom-made peaked tarpaulin across the cathedral’s roof,...

Reports circulating the Internet said a robot named "Colossus" greatly assisted in Notre Dame's fire rescue efforts. The 1100 pound robot, created by the French company Shark Robotics, used a water cannon to shoot almost 700 gallons through the cathedral's most dangerous fire areas... Paris Fire Brigade commander Jean-Claude Gallet said Colossus "lowered temperatures" in the cathedral and "saved human lives amid the unfolding disaster."

In Brooklyn, New York a judge dismissing a court challenge to mandatory measles vaccinations in neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations. There's been a large measles outbreak in the New York area..... The big Newsdump event of the week Thursday with release of a redacted report of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller into matters related to President Trump..... Protest bans in Paris for Yellow Vests demonstrations Saturday with Notre-Dame Cathedral added.... In France Thursday a day to honor firefighters who fought Monday night's blaze at the Notre-Dame Cathedral.... Was the fire at Notre-Dame something other than an accident?..... In Northern Ireland...

As Christians around the world observe Holy Week and focus their attention on Christ, one mother from Scotland said she could "see Jesus" in the fire that engulfed the Notre Dame Cathedral Monday evening in a post on social media. "I may be letting my mind play tricks on me here, folks take a close look at this picture and what do you see," Lesley Rowan, 38, wrote.

>>Some may ask why millions of Earth’s citizens experienced a shared deep and emotional interest in the burning of a Christian house of worship. Atheists. Jews. Muslims. Hindus. Buddhists. Animists. Conservatives. Liberals. Even those who seemingly go out of their way to use the slightest opportunity to mock or ridicule Christians and their faith.<<

<p>6:15 p.m.</p> <p>A French judicial police official said investigators think an electrical short-circuit most likely caused Notre Dame Cathedral fire.</p> <p>The official, who spoke anonymously about the ongoing investigation, said investigators still don’t have the green light to work in the cathedral and search in the rubble for safety reasons.</p>

It's hard to tell sometimes if liberals are saying something because they really mean it or whether they're just trolling the right, trying to get a rise out. I say this because it's hard to imagine anyone being serious about rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and not wanting to recreate its sacred past. But the discussion is already underway to rebuild the structure along more secular, "modern" lines. Rolling Stone: Over the course of the past few centuries, the cathedral has played a role in major historical events, from the coronation of kings to the crowning of Napoleon...

But Prime Minister Édouard Philippe upended expectations with an announcement of an international competition to replace the iconic spire that collapsed into Monday’s inferno. He also raised the prospect of a 21st-century twist atop a 12th-century creation. “This is obviously a huge challenge, a historic responsibility,” Philippe said, noting that the new design would have to be “adapted to technologies and challenges of our times.”

It was shocking to watch Notre Dame Cathedral burning up 800 years of history on live TV, but that’s exactly what happened on Monday. Cable news went wall-to-wall with the devastation, replaying the moment the spire fell like it was the Zapruder film in Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” A total loss, they declared. Only it wasn’t, not even close. What was reported as the worst thing ever wasn’t all that bad, or at least not nearly as bad as it looked or could have been. So why the pearl-clutching and declarations? Early on in my career and fresh out of college,...

As Notre Dame, the great Gothic cathedral of Paris, was gutted by fire, French President Emmanuel Macron was expected to reach the hearts of his people. He didn't disappoint them. Oratory from politicians doesn't put out fires. It doesn't save relics so important to the Roman Catholic faithful, such as the crown of thorns said to have been worn by Jesus Christ at his crucifixion. And oratory won't save Christianity in a modern, left-dominated and secular Western Europe undergoing great cultural change. It is a Europe that is spiritually and culturally adrift, while holding Christianity firmly at a distance. And...

The flames that consumed the spire of Notre Dame and burned the 856-year-old church to its foundations could have been doused by the tears of the faithful. If France heeds calls to rebuild the cathedral as a reflection of what modern “French people want,” the new structure may be flooded by their tears. The fire, whose origins remain under investigation, was initially reported to have left little more than medieval stones, rose windows, and — make of this what you will — its golden altar cross untouched. Donations nearing $1 billion have already poured in from around the world, without...