The National Heritage and Architecture Commission in France has greenlighted at least some of the hideous proposals to modernize Notre Dame Cathedral as part of the renovation effort following the 2019 fire, the New York Times reports.
There is potent symbolism in this dumbing down of religion in an increasingly secular country and the continued vandalism of our shared cultural inheritance. What’s most disappointing is that these proposals were made by the diocese of Paris.
The 100 or so French public figures put it well in their letter published in Le Figaro: “Notre-Dame de Paris: What the fire spared, the diocese wants to destroy.”