Dear. God. Notre Dame

UPDATE:

Hmmm. Confused croissant salesman looking for the exit?

9 Responses to “Dear. God. Notre Dame”

1. Syd B. says:

   April 16, 2019 at 12:03 pm

   A very sad event. I have been fighting off the urge, no, the temptation to go down the conspiracy route, however, I did find it very odd that French officials were able to rule out terrorism while the building remained engulfed in flames. That is some impressive investigating.

2. tree hugging sister says:

   April 16, 2019 at 12:06 pm

   As did I, Syd – peculiar in the extreme how crack investigators can say definitively ARSON/TERRORISM OUT while flames are not. And not the mystery man in the “gear” wandering the balcony. Hello?

3. aelfheld says:

   April 16, 2019 at 1:08 pm

   The video shows someone in one of the narthex towers, whereas the fire is over the transept.

   If the ‘mystery man’ set the steeple fire (1) how would he know the narthex tower wouldn’t be engulfed by the steeple fire spreading and (2) why didn’t he set further blazes?

   The declaration of ‘no terrorism to see here’ is precipitate, & likely reflexive, but that doesn’t mean the officials weren’t correct.

4. tree hugging sister says:

   April 16, 2019 at 1:36 pm

   UPDATED: I thought as soon as I saw the scaffolding, “Uh oh.” But then they were SO quick. Get guys inside.

   The fellow? He might be a falafel salesman. Or he might be looking for an elevator. Or that might be a helmet, safety vest, etc… But check out the sequence of alarms. Again, get investigators INSIDE. And then tell folks the FACTS. https://www.thedailybeast.com/paris-notre-dame-fire-extinguished-revealing-massive-damage-to-the-800-year-old-landmark-situation-still-precarious

5. Syd B. says:

   April 18, 2019 at 9:33 am

   I have done some research on the contractor who has been working on the restoration project at Notre Dame Cathedral. This isn’t an outfit that someone found in the yellow pages and gave a great quote on rebuilding the roof. No, this company is world famous for working on some of the oldest archetectural structures on the planet. Their staff are extremely well trained in safety, especially fire safetly and the area where the fire apparently started, there were no sources of spark, fire, flame permitted. Also, contrary to media reports, construction in the area had not even started, other than the fitting of scaffolding. So, with very low likelihood that the source of the fire was project related and with all construction staff gone from the area and with several determined arsen fires set in other catholic churches in Paris over the last month and with the timing of this fire falling in the week of the arguably the most significant religious celebration of the year, experts found it appropriate to announce that arson was ruled out as the flames were reaching their peak. Why is the media not wondering about this?

6. tree hugging sister says:

   April 18, 2019 at 10:41 am

   Exactly. Not to mention, both firms working said their folks had left the building quite a while before. So…GET INVESTIGATORS IN THERE.

   “Julien Le Bras, CEO of Europe Echafaudages, which received a contract to renovate the spire in 2017, told reporters Tuesday that 12 of his employees were working on the project, but that “there were absolutely no workers on site when the fire broke out, and there hadn’t been for quite a while before the fire.”

   Mark Eskenazi, a PR representative for Le Bras Freres, told CNN the company is speaking to experts about how to take down the scaffolding and “absolutely” denies responsibility for what happened, saying that its workers had left the cathedral one hour before the fire began.”

   https://fox5sandiego.com/2019/04/17/workers-questioned-as-notre-dame-fire-investigation-ramps-up/

   Roger Kimball thought the quick call strange as well. https://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/why-were-authorities-so-quick-to-rule-out-arson-in-the-notre-dame-conflagration/

7. Kathy Kinsley says:

   April 18, 2019 at 7:58 pm

   I suspect arson, and I think there are probably insurance companies involved that will lead to actual truth.
   (Just too many other attacks on Christian sites.)
   If I’m wrong, I apologize…

8. Mike Cunningham says:

   April 25, 2019 at 6:33 am

   I have witnessed, over the seven-odd decades I have been reading and watching newscasts, news reports and radio broadcasts, many times when grief should reign supreme. I was thirteen years old when I read the historical work entitled ‘Scourge of the Swastika’, by Lord Russell of Liverpool. As a compendium of doom, of hatred, of a singular listing of Man’s inhumanity to his fellow Man, it has few equals. I was born during World War 2, I just about remember my father visiting us at home in the indoor bomb shelter where I, along with my mother and my two brothers slept every night of those long war years, but it was only after reading of the actions, philosophies and practices of one Nazi Nation, over those few years of that illusory ‘1,000 Years Reich’; did I actually understand why we went to war, why my father served in the British Army, why my uncle died on the fields of Normandy, alongside many thousands of his fellow Servicemen. Those six-odd years, along with the terrible years before war was actually declared, epitomise, for me, the reasons for Grief. The remaining Jewish remnants of a once vital sector of European civilisation had more than enough reason for their grief; as their fellow Jews were slaughtered for the mere reason that they were Jews!

   We all experience grief, for happenings both deeply personal and for those who have lost loved ones in disasters large and small. Grief is a truly human emotion, as we feel a hurt and a loss inside our minds and hearts. My sister died when just sixteen years old. She contracted leukaemia, went from the body of a vital, healthy teenager to a ghost with eyes, in the space of months. Her death shattered my father, and my mother was, truly, never the same again. That was grief, so raw, so immediate, so very understandable. My wider family has suffered similar losses, with immediate family watching as illness or disease eats away at a loved one’s very essence; and have to face the consequences. We are no different to millions more.

   As the philosopher stated “Man is born to live, to suffer, and to die, and what befalls him is a tragic lot. There is no denying this in the final end. But we must deny it all along the way.”

   As I stated, grief is a human emotion, about other human beings, some close, many more distant, but still, the very instance of one’s passing causes one or many to grieve, and then to heal, and to move on.

   So why are so many talking, writing or commenting about their grief over the devastating fire which has consumed the roof and interior of a Catholic Cathedral in Paris?

   In links such as this, or this, or this, or even this: they are writing and talking about a Building. A historic building? Yes, but still built of stone, and timber, and glass and iron. It has no beating heart; it does not possess a soul, or a mind, or indeed a conscience: so why indeed this outpouring of an emotion which should be reserved for humanity?

9. Syd B. says:

   April 25, 2019 at 11:36 am

   It is a place of worship first and foremost, a symbol of Catholicism, an architectural wonder, a home to works of art, and an emblem of France. To Parisians, Notre-Dame is part of the very fabric of the city and its skyline, it is Paris’ beating heart, its nucleus. To people who travel to Paris from far and wide, Notre-Dame is a sight many have saved up to behold, it is the backdrop to marriage proposals, to photographs, to fond memories.

   Why, therefore, when the cathedral’s meaning is so profoundly personal, must we take it upon ourselves to tell others how they should articulate their emotional responses to such a tragic event?