Notre Dame greets the world again as it reopens five years after the fire

Macron conveys to firefighters and builders the “gratitude of the French nation”: “We have achieved the impossible”

MADRID Dec. 7 () –

Dignitaries from around the world came to Paris this Friday to celebrate the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral, five years and seven months after a major restoration work after the 2019 fire and in which nearly 2,000 workers and 250 companies

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The Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, was in charge of opening the doors of the cathedral to all attendees. “Brothers and sisters: let us now enter Notre Dame. Open your doors to joyfully gather the children of God,” he proclaimed, dressed in a colorful chasuble designed by stylist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, before hitting the gate with his staff.

Once the ritual was over, the cathedral bells began to ring accompanied by the cathedral choir that played in the background at the guests’ entrance.

The ceremony takes place in three parts. First of all, the “awakening” of the great organ, the largest in France, with 8,000 pipes and 115 registers. Secondly, the so-called “singing of the Office” takes place, a series of psalms and prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer. Next, the archbishop will give the final blessing and the choir will sing the ‘Te Deum’.

“We are here,” wrote the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, in the moments before the doors opened. “The world is watching us.”

Already during the beginning of the ceremony, the French president expressed to the firefighters – greatly honored at the beginning, with a parade of 160 members of the units that fought the flames – and to the employees in the reconstruction the “gratitude of the French nation “. “We have rediscovered what great nations were capable of doing: achieving the impossible and, to achieve it, exhibiting unprecedented brotherhood,” he added.

After the devastating fire, the authorities managed to raise some 850 million euros in donations from nearly 340,000 donors in 150 countries, who have contributed significantly to what is considered by many to be the “work of the century.”

After the cathedral caught fire as horrified Parisians looked on, Macron promised not only to rebuild it within five years but to “make it even more beautiful.” Now, from the Elysée, they assure that it is an “objective achieved.”