PARIS (OSV News) — For the first time since the world watched as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned in the devastating 2019 fire, the pope stepped inside the famous gothic cathedral and called on Catholics in France to be “living stones” of a Church that bears witness to how God’s love restores and heals humanity.
It was an emotional moment for many French Catholics as Pope Leo XIV led prayers Sept. 25 inside Notre Dame, which reopened to the public in December 2024.
“This Cathedral has been reborn so that you, too, may be reborn with it in a new impetus towards holiness and daily mission,” Pope Leo told the bishops, priests, deacons, and religious men and women gathered inside, speaking in French.
Church bells rang out across the city of Paris to welcome the pope to the French capital. Pope Leo greeted crowds on the streets as the popemobile traveled from the UNESCO headquarters near the Eiffel Tower to the Place Saint-Michel, a public square across from the Ile de la Cite, the island in the center of the River Seine where Notre-Dame is located. The Holy See Press office said an estimated 300,000 Parisians greeted the pope as he drove through the city.
Paris archbishop, rector welcome pope to 12th-century cathedral
The pope was welcomed to the 12th-century cathedral by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris and Msgr. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, the rector of Notre Dame. Archbishop Ulrich recalled how Pope Leo had told him how he longed to see Notre Dame.
Pope Leo spent a moment kneeling in prayer before the tabernacle and the chapel containing the precious relic of Christ’s crown of thorns, which he was able to kiss.
The pope then led the prayer of vespers with about 2,000 bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and consecrated people in attendance inside the cathedral.
“Notre-Dame is more than a monument,” Pope Leo said in his homily inside the cathedral. “The collective effort to rebuild it, and the splendor of the result reveal that the heart of a people beats here, and that here we stand at the living center of a civilization, where past and future embrace, where heaven and earth meet.”
“Simply entering this place brings us face-to-face with a beauty that speaks to our restless hearts and calls them to peace,” he added.
Cathedral is much more than a landmark
In his homily, the pope emphasized that Notre Dame Cathedral is much more than a landmark, but “the place where the Christian community celebrates the highest form of prayer and worship, renewing in the Eucharist the redemptive sacrifice of Christ.”
“This Cathedral is not merely a stone structure to be admired; instead, it lives by the sacred mystery celebrated within it. Without the liturgy, it would lose its soul,” he said.
“Today, more than ever, we live in an age that seems deprived of fullness, depth and promise,” the pope reflected. “The noble simplicity of song, spoken word and liturgical gesture can be for many a glimmer of hope, an oasis of peace in a hyper-connected and noisy society, where we can experience the presence of the Author of the greatest love: ‘When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son’ (Gal 4:4).”
The construction of Notre Dame Cathedral took nearly two centuries from start to finish. The first stone was laid in 1163 with Pope Alexander III in attendance. The first Mass was celebrated in Notre-Dame in 1182, but the Gothic construction was not considered complete until 1345.
During the French Revolution, the cathedral was seriously damaged. Its bells were melted down, many statues were destroyed, and its medieval spire was dismantled. The publication of Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in 1831 helped to bring attention to the cathedral’s state of neglect, leading to an extensive 19th-century restoration project.
Many of the stained-glass windows date back to 13th century
Many of the stained-glass windows in the cathedral date back to the 13th century, including the southern rose window, which was a gift from St. Louis, king of France from 1226 to 1270.
The historic cathedral was seriously damaged by a massive fire on April 15, 2019, which destroyed the spire and wooden roof. The cathedral finally reopened to the public on Dec. 7, 2024, after a more than 700 euro restoration. Pope Francis was invited for the reopening of the cathedral, but did not attend, instead creating new cardinals in Rome in what turned out to be his last consistory on Dec. 7, 2024.
In a speech at the Elysee Palace earlier in the day, Pope Leo expressed deep appreciation to the many artists, builders, technicians and skilled workers who took part in the restoration of the cathedral. He said that Notre Dame’s reopening is “a symbol of renewed hope” that showed how “something considered irreparably destroyed can be reborn through mutual cooperation” and to “the unity born of commitment to a common cause.”
Seven-and-a-half years after the fire, the yearslong restoration of the cathedral is not fully complete. Six new contemporary stained-glass windows are expected to be installed in the more than 800-year-old cathedral by the year’s end.
Under the cathedral’s iconic gargoyles and bell towers
After vespers, the pope stood outside of the cathedral under its iconic gargoyles and bell towers to sing the “Salve Regina” before a statue of Mary with the crowd gathered on the historic Ile de la Cite and the Latin Quarter across the Seine.
Minutes before the pope’s arrival to Notre Dame, Father Baudouin de La Bigne, a priest of the Diocese of Versailles, told OSV News, “We are really proud to welcome the pope” to the restored cathedral.
“It’s the faith of our ancestors, so we’re really proud to testify our faith with that building,” he said. Like a mother of a home, he added, “that cathedral, Our Lady of Paris, is like the heart of France.”
The emotional papal visit to Notre Dame cathedral was the penultimate event of the pope’s packed first day in the French capital in which he gave speeches defending life in the Elysee
Palace and urging the protection of young people in the artificial intelligence age at the UNESCO headquarters.
In the evening, the pope will travel to the iconic venue for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games — Stade de France in Saint-Denis — where he will take part in a prayer vigil expected to draw more than 80,000 young people.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
