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Notre Dame


  • Notre Dame: The Soul of France (Review)

    by Jeff Roquen

    Agnès Poirier's book describes the central place of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris in the city and in French history both religious and secular, and the angst provoked by its threatened destruction by fire in 2019.



  • The battle for Notre Dame

    by Philip Kennicott and Aaron Steckelberg

    As the cathedral rises from the ashes, a tug of war over its transformation and history. 



  • Notre Dame Cathedral Is Crumbling. Who Will Help Save It?

    The repairs will be expensive and it's not at all clear who is prepared to foot the bill. Under France's strict secular laws, the government owns the cathedral, and the Catholic archdiocese of Paris uses it permanently for free.



  • Topless protest at church after historian's suicide

    A Femen activist protested in Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral on Wednesday, one day after far-right historian Dominique Venner committed suicide inside. Venner shot himself at the altar in front of around 1,500 visitors.Venner condemned both same-sex marriage and Islamist influence in France in writings before his death.The now infamous topless protesters released the following statement along with photographs:"Just right now FEMEN's angel of Death held a mono-protest on the altar of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in the same place of yesterday's suicide of fascist activist....



  • Far-right historian commits suicide In Notre Dame cathedral

    Dominique Venner, a well-known French historian who embraced and wrote about ultra-conservative causes for decades, committed suicide today in front of the alter at Notre Dame Cathedral. He had left a post on his blog decrying the legalization of same sex marriage in France. "An infamous law ... can always be repealed," he wrote. "It will require new, spectacular and symbolic actions to rouse people from their complacency."...



  • Christians have persecution complex, Candida Moss says

    A historian claims that many stories about the persecution of early Christians were invented or exaggerated to further the religion. Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame maintains Christianity is so laden with such tales that it has given rise to a myth of persecution among modern believers. A Catholic, Moss expects her claims to be the source of irritation to the faithful - but that they're missing the point.Moss, from South Bend, Indiana, claims only a handful of martyrdom stories ever actually occurred and there was no widespread Roman persecution. The stories were largely invented to inspire loyalty among the masses.Moss says that modern Christians to drop the victim complex inherited from them. "Christians were never the victims of sustained, targeted persecution. The idea of the persecuted church is almost entirely the invention of the 4th century and later," she adds....



  • New Notre Dame bells make harmonious history in Paris’ storied Cathedral

    PARIS — The cathedral of Notre Dame — French for “our lady” — has finally got the prima donna worthy of its name.Weighing in at six and a half tons or 6,000 kilograms of glistening bronze, this lady is no ordinary person: she’s a bell named Mary.Mary is in fact the largest — and loudest — of nine new, gargantuan Notre Dame bells being blessed Saturday in the cathedral’s nave by Archbishop Andre Armand Vingt-Trois....