One of Christendom's greatest and oldest sanctuaries has suffered great damage but largely survived. According to whom you read, its devastation is a metaphor for European Christianity's collapse or for its rebirth through fire.
The mass horror over Notre Dame's fire, and the immediate resolve for the cathedral's full restoration, signify that France's connection to Catholicism is not so remote as often imagined, True, it was a national political and cultural symbol. But it was chiefly an active church where the Eucharist is celebrated daily and whose architecture honors saints, Apostles and prophets. Neither France nor Europe nor the West can be understood politically or culturally apart from those saints, Apostles, and prophets.
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