All Day
December 7, 2024
Notre Dame de Paris is schedule to reopen its doors on December 7, a little over 5 years after the disastrous fire on April 15, 2019. The reopening ceremony itself will be by invitation only, but it will be televised.
Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will preside at a reopening service that afternoon, knocking on Notre Dame’s closed doors with his staff to symbolically reopen them.
The event will also highlight Notre Dame’s grand organ: The fire that melted the cathedral’s lead roofing coated the huge instrument in toxic dust. Its 8,000 pipes have been painstakingly disassembled, cleaned and re-tuned.
After the service, opera singers Pretty Yende, from South Africa, and Julie Fuchs, from France; Chinese pianist Lang Lang; Paris-born cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Benin-born singer Angelique Kidjo; Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji and others will perform at a concert Saturday evening, according to the show’s broadcaster, France Télévisions.
On Sunday morning, the Paris archbishop will lead an inaugural Mass and consecration of the new altar.
Nearly 170 bishops from France and other countries will join the celebration, along with priests from all 106 parishes in the Paris diocese. Macron will attend and address the VIP guests. The Mass will be followed by a “fraternal buffet” for the needy.
Among the many dignitaries in attendance will be French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump, and some 40 other heads of state.
You can view our page on Notre Dame Cathedral here.