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The French media confirmed there were NO CONSTRUCTION WORKERS at Notre Dame Cathedral at the time of the devastating fire. Via Sotiri Dimpinoudis

French President Emmanuel Macron declares a national emergency as authorities rule out arson or terror-related motives.

Hours after a massive fire engulfed the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday, a city official said the structure of the building had been saved. The fire at the cathedral caused the roof to collapse, destroyed a spire and spread to one of the building's two rectangular towers. The sight brought many onlookers to tears... ...TThe spire destroyed by the fire contained artifacts considered sacred to Catholics, including a relic believed to be from Jesus Christ's crown of thorns. Relics from Saint Genevieve and Saint Denis are also feared lost. Michel Picaud, from the Friends of Notre Dame...

Pope Benedict XVI, previously known as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, should be heeded: he knows what of he speaks. In the first general audience of his pontificate he stressed Europe's "inalienable" Christian roots. The wisdom of his choice of the his papal name Benedict (the name of Pope Benedict XV, "a courageous and authentic prophet of peace" who led the Catholic Church during the dark years of World War I, and Saint Benedict, founder of the Benedictine order and one of the patron saints of Europe) is being confirmed by the current rioting in Europe by an Islamic extremist criminal element...

French firefighters were racing Monday to save Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after a colossal fire caused the spire of the historic edifice to crash to the ground and wiped out centuries of heritage. The fire already destroyed the roof of the 850 year old UNESCO world heritage landmark, whose spectacular gothic spire collapsed before the eyes of horrified onlookers on a previously pristine early spring evening. The fire, which came as Catholics prepare to celebrate Easter, sent orange flames and clouds of grey smoke billowing into the sky as stunned Parisians and tourists watched on in horror. Some were in...

PARIS, April 15 (Reuters) - Notre-Dame Cathedral went up in flames on Monday in a roaring blaze that devasted the Parisian landmark, one of France's most visited places. Loading... Flames burst through the roof of the centuries-old cathedral and quickly engulfed the spire, which collapsed. A huge plume of smoke wafted across the city and ash fell over a large area. Firefighters cleared the area around the cathedral, which marks the very center of Paris. President Emmanuel Macron canceled an address to the nation that he had been due to give later on Monday evening. A presidential official said Macron...

The famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France was engulfed in flames on Monday leading to the collapse of the structure's main spire. The intense flames leaped out from two of its bell towers minutes before the spire collapsed, and later spread to one of the cathedral's iconic rectangular towers.

Fox anchor Shepard Smith on Monday melted down when a French guest attempted to explain the ongoing attacks, violence and vandalism against French churches. Talking about the fire engulfing Notre Dame, where the cause is unknown, guest Philippe Karsenty began, “For the past years, we've had churches desecrated each and every week all over France.” Just seconds after his guest was introduced, Smith immediately jumped in and reprimanded, “Sir, sir, sir, we're not going to speculate of the cause of something that we don't know! If you have observations or you know something, we would love to hear it.” After...

There were almost 50 attacks and acts of vandalism against religious sites in France documented in the month of February, according to Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe. One of the worst occurred at the historic Basilica of Saint-Denis, just north of Paris.

France has seen a spate of attacks against Catholic churches since the start of the year, vandalism that has included arson and desecration. Vandals have smashed statues, knocked down tabernacles, scattered or destroyed the Eucharist and torn down crosses, sparking fears of a rise in anti-Catholic sentiment in the country. Last Sunday, the historic Church of St. Sulpice in Paris was set on fire just after midday mass on Sunday, Le Parisien reported, although no one was injured. Police are still investigating ....

Anyone else remember when we only heard about these people from Story Books?

RUSH: There is fire at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, and it looks huge. The wooden roof appears to be on the way to becoming fully engulfed. There was originally just a small plume of smoke that came out of it from a distant photographer, but now they’ve got news cameras in there, and it is massive, this fire at Notre Dame. It has preempted coverage of the imminent release of the Mueller report on all of cable news. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Notre Dame Cathedral continues to burn. The main spire there has collapsed. That’s one of the identifying...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Knute Rockne. Click image for full size. To solve the puzzle, enter the letters in the top half of the puzzle into the white squares on the grid pattern below, staying in their own columns, and be used exactly once. The black squares in the grid (which represent spaces), as well as punctuation or numbers in gray, are not to be used by letters. Some words will continue from one row to another. For more detailed instructions and techniques, go here: How to solve Quotefall Puzzles. Due to issues related to front page...

Notre Dame cathedral has caught fire, according to the Parisian fire service and eyewitnesses. Footage posted online shows a large fire engulfing the upper part of the cathedral, with the flames licking around its two bell towers. A major operation was under way, the fire department added, while a city hall spokesman said on Twitter that the area was being cleared. Officials in Paris said the fire could be linked to renovation works being carried out at the cathedral. It comes after France's Saint Sulpice church , used in the filming of Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci Code’ thriller, caught fire...

Notre Dame cathedral has caught fire, according to the Parisian fire service and eyewitnesses. Footage posted online shows a large fire engulfing the upper part of the cathedral. A major operation was under way, the fire department added, while a city hall spokesman said on Twitter that the area was being cleared.

A fire has broken out at the famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, firefighters say.

[Catholic Caucus] Notre Dame President Won’t Ban Campus Porn Fr. John Jenkins snubs petitions for porn filter on Notre Dame's wifi system SOUTH BEND, Ind. (ChurchMilitant.com) - The president of Notre Dame has pushed back against calls to block access to pornography on the campus wifi.  In October last year, a group of around 80 male Notre Dame students called for a campus-wide porn filter in a letter to the editor in student-run newspaper The Observer. The open letter noted that an online petition supporting the cause already had about 1,000 signatures from students, faculty and staff. Enough Is Enough (EIE), a group promoting...

The father of Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was a Marxist professor who spoke fondly of the Communist Manifesto and dedicated a significant portion of his academic career to the work of Italian Communist Party founder Antonio Gramsci, an associate of Vladimir Lenin. Joseph Buttigieg, who died in January at the age of 71, immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s from Malta and in 1980 joined the University of Notre Dame faculty, where he taught modern European literature and literary theory. He supported an updated version of Marxism that jettisoned some of Marx and Engel's more doctrinaire theories, though...

About a year ago, I was standing in line at a tiny post office in rural America when I saw something quite extraordinary. No, not a motivated postal employee. A Theodore Hesburgh stamp. Theodore who? Those who are not regular readers of the Catholic press may be forgiven for not recognizing Hesburgh’s name. Even NOR readers may puzzle over why Hesburgh warranted his own place in the adhesive pantheon — called to the counters, as it were, as one of the “secular saints” (to borrow Pieter Vree’s phrase from a memorable New Oxford Note) who lend the Washington Leviathan moral...

The recent news that the University of Notre Dame, responding to complaints by some students, would “shroud” its twelve 134-year-old murals depicting Christopher Columbus was disappointing. It was not surprising, however, to anyone who has been paying attention to the widespread attack on America’s past wherever social justice warriors congregate. Notre Dame may not be particularly friendly to its Catholic heritage, but its president, the Rev. John Jenkins, demonstrated that it remains true to its jesuitical (if not, quite, its Jesuit) inheritance. Queried about the censorship, he said, apparently without irony, that his decision to cover the murals was not...