Notre Dame Cathedral Reopens, Reminding Us of Western Civilization’s Christian Heritage

by Zachary Mettler | December 11, 2024 | Culture

Sometimes, you don’t know how much you value something until its gone.

Such is the case with Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, which reopened on Saturday more than five years after a fire devastated the great Gothic cathedral.

World leaders including President-elect Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Prince William and others attended the reopening ceremony.

Before the fire, the cathedral welcomed around 13 million visitors annually, more than the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre or St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, The New York Times reports. The restoration reportedly “cost hundreds of millions of dollars and involved about 2,000 workers and artisans, including carpenters, stonecutters and gold-leaf decorators.”

As a part of the reopening ceremony, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel led South African opera singer Pretty Yende and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in a stunning rendition of “Amazing Grace” which you can watch below:

When fire first broke out in Notre-Dame on April 15, 2019, much of the world paused in shock. The unthinkable had happened.

A building that had stood for nearly seven centuries – which represented the heart of Christian civilization in Europe – lay in ruins.

It wasn’t hard to feel something deeply significant had taken place.

Author and speechwriter Joshua Charles wrote about the fire on April 16, 2019, calling it “The Day We All Knew.”

“Today … [we] knew that whatever we were, whatever it was that gave our civilization its life, its ingenuity, its glory, is gone,” he wrote, adding,

This was the day when large portions of Notre Dame de Paris, the cathedral of Paris for nearly a thousand years, burned to the ground. It had survived the convulsions of the Black Death, religious furies, Revolution, and two world wars. But it was in our day that it crumbled.
Everyone felt the ominous significance of the event. Religious or non-religious, there was a ubiquitous terror that this fire represented something deeper – something far more profound than just a building being destroyed. It was as if the bells of Notre Dame were tolling their last for the civilization that cast them.

Indeed, it is tragic and ironic that so many throughout the West were saddened by the nearly complete loss of Notre-Dame, when cathedrals across the European continent had been largely empty for years. Were they really valued as places of worship in the first place?

Many valued the beauty of Notre-Dame – but not the deeply more significant interior beauty in the hearts of Christians that the cathedral’s magnificence was intended to represent and foster.

According to the Pew Research Center, the majority of European Christians (who are primarily Catholic) do not regularly attend church. While 44% of Catholics in Central and Eastern Europe attend church monthly, just 33% of those in Western Europe do. Likewise, 36% of Catholics in Central and Eastern Europe say they pray daily, compared to just 13% of those in Western Europe.

Tragically, only 80% of self-proclaimed Catholics in Western Europe say they believe in God at all.

Charles went on to quote historian Charles Dawson who observed, “The culture which has lost its spiritual roots is a dying culture, however prosperous it may appear externally.”

Viewed in this context, Europe is a dying civilization – and America is just a generation or two behind, unless the Holy Spirit fans into flame widespread revival and renewal.

Construction on Notre Dame de Paris began in 1163 under the reign of King Louis VII. The cathedral wasn’t mostly completed until 1345. In bygone centuries, many faithful Christians dedicated their lives to construct beautiful cathedrals as a tribute to their faith – knowing they’d never live to see the final result.

What we do, and how we live, speaks to what we value. What does it say about our society that we no longer build beautiful new churches like Notre-Dame? The answer is, probably nothing good.

Part of the reason cathedrals are so breathtaking is because they give witness to the collective Christian faith of the Western society that we’ve all inherited. They were built to honor and glorify God.

Author and scholar Thomas E. Woods has written about the importance of Christianity in building Western Civilization. Woods particularly focuses on the Catholic Church’s contribution, given his historical inquiry centers on the centuries prior to the Protestant Reformation.

He writes,

Western civilization stands indebted to the Church for the university system, charitable work, international law, the sciences, important legal principles, and much else. … In our present cultural milieu it is easy to forget – or not learn in the first place – just how much our civilization owes to the Catholic Church.

Woods adds,

To be sure, most people recognize the influence of the Church in music, art, and architecture. … However, the Church’s influence on Western civilization goes well beyond these areas.

The endurance of beautiful cathedrals in our modern world links us back to the Christian civilization which our culture now stands on.

And yet, in all too many ways, we have squandered that legacy.

Just consider these two anecdotes.

While France was in the midst of rebuilding Notre-Dame, it “became the first nation in the world to enshrine abortion as a right in its constitution.” To celebrate, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with the message “MyBodyMyChoice.”

The Christian church has unanimously condemned abortion from its earliest days.

Additionally, the 2024 Olympic Games were hosted in Paris this summer, where “anti-Christian contempt was on full display” with a scene mocking the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. The blasphemous ceremony featured hyper-sexualized drag queens and a representation of the Greek god Dionysus, god of drunkenness, sexuality and insanity.

Considering these coinciding events, Matthew 15:8 comes to mind:

“This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me” (ESV).

What is the point of building a beautiful cathedral if the people’s faith it represents, and is supposed to help nourish, is dead?

What is the point of a cathedral’s stunning architecture – meant to point people to heaven – if the people who enjoy its beauty don’t care about eternal life?

While Notre-Dame is objectively beautiful, and its restoration is heartening, what is ultimately needed is a revival of the spiritual life of Western Christians and non-believers alike.

Let’s pray Notre Dame’s restoration – some might say, it’s resurrection – is a symbol of a restoration of faith yet to come.

Focus on the Family will soon unveil the new documentary Truth Rising. John Stonestreet of the Colson Center and social critic Os Guinness lead a journey through the decline of Western Civilization and the confusion about the defining issues of our time. We point to the hope we have in Christ and our calling in this incredible moment. Be inspired to love truth and stand firmly, wherever you are.

You can watch the trailer and sign up to stay updated on Truth Rising.

Related articles and resources:

Truth Rising‘

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way’: How to Renew America and Restore a Nation

Photo from Getty Images.

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