To think there are better things to donate €100m to than rebuilding Notre Dame?

[Bearbehind]

I know no one has to donate anything but 2 French billionaires have reportedly donated €100m and €200m respectively towards rebuilding Notre Dame.

The Catholic Church is not exactly short of money.

It just doesn’t really sit right with me spending all that money on a building when it could be used for so many other things

I'm with you OP - would like to see what 300M could do for the famine in Yemen....

Imagine being so robotic and operating on such basic an instinct as "people are the be all and end all and nothing else will ever be as worthy and anything that doesn't fund people directly is a waste".

Humanity is nothing without its art, history, architecture, music, and literature.

I for one do not want to live in a world where something as hugely significant and ancient as Stonehenge is seen as "a bunch of rocks" and where humanity is reduced to nothing more than a swarm of ignorant parasites slowly destroying the planet and leaving nothing behind except destruction.

Fuck museums and galleries, hospitals are more important. Fuck churches, we need more money for care homes. Fuck the icecaps and beaches, there are schools to pay for. Fuck the rainforest, the orangutan and your local cats home, there are humans who need our help.

People are important, but they are NOT the most important thing. Everything is important. That includes Notre Dame.

Ars longa, vita brevis indeed.

The poor French people have had it rough of late. I feel for them.

I actually agree with this, although perhaps not as the PP meant it.

France has had some terrible times recently: Bataclan, Nice, Charlie Hebdo to name but a few. A French friend regularly reports arson attacks on Catholic churches in France, which have included the deaths of priests.

Something like Notre Dame burning down, after having survived two world wars - like St. Pauls - is the destruction of something very symbolic to a nation.

People are important, but they are NOT the most important thing

Very well put,

The same people are the ones wanting to ban diesel because it’s bad for humans......despite it being better for the planet

It doesn't matter if there are a million and one better things for you to donate your money to.
None of you are the ones who have donated all that money.
I don't understand the argument, surely people can donate to what they believe in.

I wasted £15 quid today buying those new reusable coffee cups from Gregg's because I saw them on a mate's Insta and DD2 , my sister and 2 nieces wanted them. They're made of plastic, too. Hope the fund for the restoration is opened worldwide soon, I'll chuck a tenner at it.

@Dora26 given that multiple billions of dollars have already been donated to the Yemen crisis, I'd say an extra €300m is not realistically going to do a lot.

I'd be very interested to see evidence of regular arson attacks on Catholic churches including priests burning to death. I'd expect something like that to be headline news.

You could save loads of lives with your income, I guarantee. Why do you spend money on new clothes or Netflix or unnecessary food or books or alcohol or phones? Why are you paying for internet access when a few quid a month brings clean water to save people's lives? Or is it only other people that have to give to the causes you apparently find so worthy?

100% this. Some people on here have no self awareness about how they are coming across.

"The world is awful, famine in Yemen, Grenfell, ...someone else should do something about it......while I sit here on my expensive smartphone/laptop and moan about it."

OK had a quick google and found a handful of arson attacks on churches but no dead priests.

OP if it's any consolation after the hammering you've taken here, the Fondation de France FB page is absolutely chocka with bone fide French people making exactly the same point as you...

I'm impressed at Lifecraft's ability to intuit other people's home circumstances.

TaMere priests have been murdered in churches in France. OK not directly related to the arson attacks.

Not sure how I feel about Tusk asking all EU countries to donate to their state owned building restoration. Will their donations affect how they are regarded in the EU? If someone chooses to donate, it is their business, whether €1 or €100m euro. Sadly the state let the building fall into severe disrepair prior to this and were looking to raise around €150m to restore it. Now he can throw resource at it to restore and repair it with the €600m in donations already in the pot. I would love to see it restored rather than left but it will never be the same which is sad.

It's not just architectural, religious and artistic merit either. It was where Napoléon crowned himself in front of the pope. The historical aspect is very important. People might learn a bit about modern history, the French Revolution etc through its existence. Without that then our whole society could have been very different. If everything was stripped back, no art, no architecture, no history then people would have nothing to aspire to or inspire them. I don't think society would function very well like that. It's a balancing act of resources, but if Notre Dam isn't important enough to preserve I don't know what is.

One priest has been murdered in a church in France, yes.

I'm glad people give money to restore this beautiful building.
It's a landmark, part of human history and continues to be the livelihood of hundreds of people.
If course, money could always be spend better, in a more worthy cause.... problem is, who decides what is a worthy cause??

Priests have been murdered in English churches too - Thomas Becket, anyone? Although God only knows what relevance that has.

Looks like it’s me and <a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6928117/Janet-Street-Porter-angers-Loose-Women-viewers-arguing-Notre-Dame-shouldnt-rebuilt.html" target="_blank">Janet Street Porterr*

Not great company to keep.

And since Janet will have been paid to write that prescriptive drivel this morning I am assuming he cheques to Grenfell and Refugees are in the post right now.

No? They're paying Janet's mortgage? Well, fuck my old boots.

JSP's a rent-on-gob on par with Katie Hopkins. She's a bitter, nasty, hateful, spiteful bitch.

I agree with the OP. The Catholic Church is one of the, if not the, wealthiest organisations in the world, and are supposed to be carrying on the teachings of Christ (peace and love and charity and all that jazz). It would have been nice to see them come out and say "cheers for the donations guys but you know what we've got this one. Please use your money to help elsewhere".

The money wouldn’t have been used elsewhere though. The donors would just say OK and put it back in their coffers.

Buster

It would have been nice to see them come out and say "cheers for the donations guys but you know what we've got this one. Please use your money to help elsewhere".

They.do.not.own.the.cathedral. Or any church in France built before 1905. The cathedral belongs to the Republic of France.

They.do.not.own.the.cathedral. Or any church in France built before 1905. The cathedral belongs to the Republic of France.

What's that got to do with anything??

It's a working Catholic church with huge significance to said church. I would have liked to see them come out and say they'll foot the bills for the repairs because of this and encourage those who have donated to use the money for other causes.

It's a working Catholic church with huge significance to said church. I would have liked to see them come out and say they'll foot the bills for the repairs because of this and encourage those who have donated to use the money for other causes.

The religious services are a small percentage of the functions the building serves, a very small percentage, and anyone who knows anything about ND knows this. It is only by the courtesy of the state that any religious services are allowed to be carried out there, this can change at any minute.

The church, nor anyone else cannot dictate to anyone how a person spends its own money. The people making these donations have volunteered it, if they hadn't, they would have just invested it to make more or bought another yacht or maybe some penthouses to leave sitting empty in London not go sing Kumbaya because it suits some virtue signalling twits' paradigm. Hell, maybe they'll decide to give a few mil to the Catholic church. It's their money and their call.