The newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral held its first mass on Sunday, marking the return of Paris’s iconic house of worship after a historic re-opening ceremony. The cathedral, which narrowly escaped destruction in a 2019 fire, has been fully renovated with a new roof and spire during an intensive five-year restoration.
The inaugural mass was led by Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich, with 150 bishops, over 100 priests, and French President Emmanuel Macron in attendance. During the service, Ulrich consecrated a new altar to replace the one destroyed in the fire. “Whether you are here in person or watching from a screen, including those under the rain, I greet you with intense emotion,” Ulrich said, acknowledging the rain-soaked crowd outside who watched the event on public screens. In his prayers, he also called for peace in the country, which is grappling with political turmoil.
A second mass, scheduled for 6:30 pm, will be open to the public, with about 2,500 people who secured free tickets expected to attend. Starting December 16, the cathedral will be fully open to visitors through an online reservation system.
In a re-opening ceremony on Saturday, attended by world leaders including U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, French President Macron expressed the nation’s “gratitude” for the restoration efforts. “We have rediscovered what great nations can do — achieve the impossible,” he remarked. A moving moment during the ceremony came when firefighters, who had saved the cathedral during the 2019 blaze, walked through the congregation to applause, with the word “Merci” (“Thank you”) projected onto the cathedral’s facade.
The cathedral, which had been at risk of collapse during the fire, was saved thanks to the efforts of firefighters who used water from the nearby River Seine. Outside, small crowds gathered under umbrellas, with some expressing how the cathedral’s restoration represents the enduring role of the church in France.
While the restoration effort is nearly complete, parts of the cathedral’s lead roofing are still being finished, and statues of apostles and saints, which were removed for restoration before the fire, will be reinstalled by mid-2025.
Before the fire, Notre Dame attracted around 12 million visitors annually, and it is now expected to welcome even more — 14 to 15 million — following its reopening.
