Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre-Dame Cathedral

In a nation where rigid secularism—laïcité—has been a religion itself for more than a century, even those with no faith speak of Notre-Dame as the soul of the nation. But navigating laïcité is not easy. During his visit to the cathedral on Friday, President Emmanuel Macron was asked to defend himself for having had the chief rabbi of France to the Élysée Palace the night before, where he lit a menorah to mark the start of Hanukkah. Mr. Macron was unapologetic. “Laïcité is not about erasing religions,” he explained. Or is it? In France religion is confined, by law, to private expression.