Notre Dame cathedral is on fire!

[ithinkmycatistryingtokillme]

It's breaking on bbc news, from the pictures it's a major blaze!

And if the builders are found to be at fault you'd hope they have insurance.

Maybe they're only insured to a certain limit and the maximum payout won't be enough?

Well, I bet it would look lovely with a giant glass pyramid sticking out of the roof of the nave, TaMere.

@NaturatintGoldenChestnut well let us pray that the parish of Notre Dame can see in its Christian wisdom that over €800m could go further than restoring Notre Dame, especially as the figures quoted have been more around €150m

@NaturatintGoldenChestnut well let us pray that the parish of Notre Dame can see in its Christian wisdom that over €800m could go further than restoring Notre Dame, especially as the figures quoted have been more around €150m hmm

Um, it doesn't belong to the parish, it belongs to the French state which will, accordingly, coordinate the restoration of the building . There's no way to know how much it will cost because they haven't even be able to assess all the damage yet.

Amazing. Old building burns down and millions raised already. People starving and homeless and who cares. It's a shame its damaged but it is only a building and can be re built. Broken lives are harder to repair

I suppose if Buckingham palace burned down people would bitch about having to do up the Queen's house for her.

@LittleAndOften, the 150 million Euro was the expected cost of the restoration project they were working on, not the cost of restoration after the fire.

Then by all means donate your spare cash to such causes, Avaro. Others will donate to causes as they see fit.

It's a building owned by the French state, with the funds generated from tourist income going into the upkeep of the building

Worth remembering that much of cathedral's fundraising was put into the hands of the Friends of ND de Paris following state budget changes

Given that this was set up by the Archbishop and Diocese of Paris, does anyone doubt that the church will have helped themselves to some of the money supposedly raised for maintenance?

What I find really baffling is how some people don't seem to find this record amount of cash raised for a Christian building (and yes historic and cultural), either surprising or deserving of scrutiny. Furthermore, if it does cost the total sum of all of the money raised, is it really worth it? Have we become so accustomed to casually talking about millions or billions being thrown around that's its not worth comment at all? Whichever way you look at it, this is a Christian symbol and monument, so whether it's the French government, the diocese or whoever with the purse strings, it must be distributed responsibly.

Do you not remember the fire at Windsor Castle deadringer? It shamed the queen into starting to pay income tax, not before time.

Or is this whole thing just a case or billionaire one-upmanship

if it does cost the total sum of all of the money raised, is it really worth it?

Yes.

"if it does cost the total sum of all of the money raised, is it really worth it?"
No way!

sacrebleu! wev 'as been le rumbled! how you say!

A little fire and all this argent turns up the prayers they 'has bene answered;!.

Well maybe it wasnt quite like what some might think but there are some acidic questions that do need answering.

One is how was the fire allowed to start in the first place and how long was it burning for before it was noticed?

Was anyone deployed on a fire watch to do just that seeing that a building undergoing renovation is at a much great liability of fire than under normal operating circumstances?.

Why wasnt there firefighting hoses pumps access platforms there ready in case of need?, it seemed they were doing their best but could have done a better job if they were better equipped.

Fireman were seen up in the north and south towers why no hoses avaiable there?, they would because of the greater height than the roof been very good points to get water on the fire to greater and quicker effect?.

Another irreplaceable building steeped in history damaged. I was crying last night. Not on this thread, but it's saddening how many people in the general community has such little sympathy, empathy, love and respect for these historical buildings. I was on my way to the Bardo museum a few years ago, was under 15 mins away when the terrorist incident happened. The level of emotion was palpable and devastating.

I am curious about the French government taking over all religious buildings when church and state separated.
Did they pay for them or the churches just handed them over? It doesn't seem very separate to me?
Not quite the point of the thread I know but I'm curious

Sad but glad its not in this country so they wont waste loads of our public money rebuilding it

For sure. Here they just jizz £1.5billion up a wall planning for no-deal Brexit which they have no intention of implementing. Oh yes, much better use of funds.

There’s a weird strand of anti-Catholicism on Mn.

Notre Dame is to Parisians a combination of what St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey are to Londoners — a symbol of the city, of survival though war, full of history and beautiful things. Do you think they’re purely C of E? And that the Archbishop of Canterbury is likely to have skimmed off their tourist revenue for his own nefarious purposes?

I'm a lapsed Catholic and critical of the Church in many ways.
But I can't see how the AIDS epidemic can be laid at the feet of the Church.
Sure, they say, do not use condoms. But they also say, no sex before marriage and fidelity thereafter. Which is, frankly, a very good method of limiting the spread of STDs.

It's a bit much to say people rush to obey the Church on point one, but cannot be expected to obey on point 2.

Could be I'm missing part of the picture.

@Justaboy if only they had had your expertise. Have you been working in the industry long?

flit, details here:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_French_law_on_the_Separation_of_the_Churches_and_the_State

The state passed a law ending government funding of religious groups and declaring all church buildings government property. I think cathedrals are officially state property and smaller churches belong to local government.

Justaboy. Much of the damage caused to York Minster was due to enthusiastic hose useage by firefighters. Water might well have caused the towers to collapse and would certainly have destroyed more of the art and glass.
The fire is an absolute tragedy for Parisians - Catholic’s and non Catholics alike. It is more than a medieval church and miracle of early engineering. It is a community of people. It is a place of calm amid city hustle and for many a place of solace. Over the centuries it has had huge historical significance and is where the liberation services were held - I imagine that was a big deal for an occupied nation.
It is owned by the state because of a law passed around 1905. The state theoretically owns it but does not subsidise running or staff costs. Rome has the right to use the building for religious purposes in perpetuity.

Well, this has veered oddly off course...

ND is far more than a religious edifice.
It's where key moments in French history were marked, where the bells rang as de Gaulle finally spoke in person, not on the BBC, after the liberation of Paris, where major funerals take place, where people came together in an effort to deal with the unmitigated horror of the Bataclan killings. It's a monumental and stunning edifice in a city full of astoundingly beautiful buildings, a testament to survival in a changing, bloody world, an integral part of everyday life for many Parisians, a symbol of endurance and resistance for many French people who are keenly aware of the horrors of occupation and the terrible moral choices it led to for a whole generation, a focal point of cinema, literature and art.
The principle of secularism that has underpinned French society since 1905 means that for many it has no religious significance, but deep spiritual, symbolic meaning.

Billions are being wasted while UK politicians arse around trying to square the lies of Brexit campaigners with the reality of the modern world, with dire consequences for UK citizens for decades to come. Yet people are very quick to criticise donations given to rebuild a fundamental pillar of life in a city about which they know little.

Some of the posts on here are tasteless in the extreme.

Well said Auld