Category: 2024 News

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The annual Prayer Vigil for Life will take place Jan. 23-24, 2025, the U.S. bishops’ conference announced Nov. 22.

The event is hosted each January by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life Secretariat, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington and The Catholic University of America’s Office of Campus Ministry. It takes place on the eve of the March for Life, an annual protest of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which was overturned in 2022.

The 52nd National March for Life will take place Jan. 24, 2025.

“I enthusiastically invite Catholics from all around the country to join me in-person or virtually, in praying for an end to abortion and building up a culture of life,” said Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in the USCCB’s statement announcing the dates.

Since the high court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 overturned nearly a half-century of its own precedent that held abortion to be a constitutional right, individual states have moved to either restrict abortion or expand access to it.

“Together, we must pray to change hearts and build a culture of life as we advocate for the most vulnerable,” Bishop Thomas said. “I look forward to opening our Vigil with Holy Mass together with many other bishops, hundreds of priests, consecrated religious, seminarians, and many thousands of pilgrims.”

At the vigil, the Jan 23 opening mass will take place in the basilica’s Great Upper Church from 5-7 p.m., with Bishop Thomas as the principal celebrant and homilist. A Eucharistic procession and the National Holy Hour for Life will follow the Mass. The vigil’s closing Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn.

The event will be broadcast on Catholic networks and livestreamed on the basilica’s website at www.nationalshrine.org/mass. More information about the schedule can be found on the USCCB’s website, www.usccb.org, and more information about on-site attendance at the basilica is at its website.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A touring relic will give the faithful in Washington and seven states a rare opportunity to venerate St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest Christian theologians.

The skull of St. Thomas, which has been on tour in Europe for the past year for observances marking the jubilees of his canonization (700 years in 2023), death (750 years in 2024) and birth (800 years in 2025) will be in Washington for two days of veneration Nov. 29 and 30.

Washington is the first of its stops in 10 U.S. cities through Dec. 18.

The Dominican medieval theologian and author of key theological works including the “Summa Theologiae” (“Summary of Theology”) died of illness during travel at Fossanova Abbey in Italy March 7, 1274, around age 49. He was canonized five decades later on July 18, 1323, and declared a doctor of the church in 1567.

The Cistercian abbey kept St. Thomas’ body until 1369. Then his relics were moved to Toulouse, France, where the Dominicans, also known as the Order of Preachers, were founded.

Dominicans in Toulouse commissioned a new reliquary for the skull’s tour. The relic was recently on display in the Czech Republic and France, and after the United States, organizers have planned for stops in Manila and Luxembourg.

The events in Washington are sponsored by St. Dominic Parish, the Dominican House of Studies and the Thomistic Institute.

The skull will be displayed first at St. Dominic Nov. 29, beginning at 12:10 p.m. with Mass celebrated by Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington. Veneration continues until 7 p.m., with vespers at 5:30 p.m. and night prayer at 6:45 p.m., concluding with a Marian procession.

On Nov. 30, the relic will be received at the Dominican House of Studies beginning with lauds and a votive Mass of St. Thomas Aquinas at 7:30 a.m. Veneration will continue until 5 p.m. with Dominican Father Gregory Pine preaching at 3 p.m.

The relic’s other scheduled visits include St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Charlottesville, Virginia, Dec. 2; Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, Dec. 4; St. Gertrude Priory, Cincinnati, Dec. 6; St. Patrick Priory, Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 7-8; St. Louis Bertrand Parish, Louisville, Kentucky, Dec. 10; St. Rose Priory, Springfield, Kentucky, Dec. 12; St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, New York City, Dec. 14; St. Patrick Parish, Philadelphia, Dec. 16; and Sts. Philip and James Parish, Baltimore, Dec. 18.

Besides the skull in Toulouse, another skull thought to be that of St. Thomas was found in Fossanova in 1585 and is kept nearby in the town of Priverno. In March, that skull was carried in a solemn procession with the local bishop in Priverno to mark the 750th anniversary of the saint’s death.

In 2023, a medical team examined the Priverno skull, and both skulls are currently venerated pending an eventual forensic and DNA analysis.

Relics have real power, Father James Sullivan, prior of St. Dominic’s Priory in Washington, told OSV News.

“The veneration of the relic brings about a certain devotion in the faithful,” he said. “People who are struggling feel close to saints who also struggled.”

That closeness is the point, he said. The relic “reminds us of the holiness of the person, whether martyr or pope,” he said. “It’s holiness that matters — our devotion to Christ and how closely we follow him.”

St. Thomas’ three jubilees “draw our attention to the masterwork of wisdom and sanctity which God wrought in him,” Father Pine, instructor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an assistant director at the Thomistic Institute, said in a Nov. 19 statement announcing the relic’s Washington stops. “The opportunity that we have to receive and venerate his relic makes this grace all the more proximate and precious to us.”

In the same statement, Father James Brent, assistant professor of philosophy at the Dominican House of Studies, said “an exceptional way” to gain wisdom and understanding “is to pray for it in the presence of the skull of St. Thomas Aquinas.”

St. Thomas’ teaching of natural theology — the belief that people can experience God’s existence through reason and experience, instead of any special revelation — makes him very accessible, Father Sullivan said.

It’s, “what you could call human flourishing — becoming a better person,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, as the sole administrator for the Vatican’s pension fund, which is currently unable to guarantee future obligations in the medium term.

“We are all fully aware now that urgent structural measures, which can no longer be postponed, are needed to achieve sustainability of the pension fund,” the pope wrote in a letter addressed to the College of Cardinals and the heads of the Roman Curia and other institutions connected to the Holy See.

Given the limited resources available to the Holy See and because appropriate funding will be needed to cover all pension obligations, there is a need for “making decisions that are not easy and will require special sensitivity, generosity and a willingness to sacrifice from everyone,” the pope wrote in the letter dated Nov. 19 and published by the Vatican Nov. 21.

“In light of this and with everything considered, I wish, therefore, to inform you of the decision I made today to appoint His Eminence, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, sole administrator for the pension fund, believing that this choice represents, at this time, an essential step in meeting the challenges facing our pension system in the future,” he wrote.

The letter comes just a few months after the pope wrote to the College of Cardinals Sept. 16 saying, “Additional effort is now needed on everyone’s part so that a ‘zero deficit'” may be an achievable goal.

The pope had already reduced the salary for cardinals living in Rome in previous years and completely eliminated their allowances starting Nov. 1; it was estimated that without the allowances, the cardinals now receive just over 10% less each month.

“Since we have to deal with serious and complex problems that risk worsening if not dealt with in a timely manner,” the pope wrote Nov. 19, it was time to address the management of the Vatican’s pension fund, which has been an issue of concern ever since its establishment.

The latest studies carried out by independent experts, the pope wrote, now point to “a serious prospective imbalance in the fund,” which will only increase over time without any interventions.

“In concrete terms, this means that the current system is unable to guarantee in the medium term the fulfillment of the pension obligation for future generations,” he wrote, emphasizing that “justice and equity” across generations must remain guiding principles.

The pope asked everyone for their “special cooperation in facilitating this new and unavoidable path of change” and thanked all those who have “dealt with this sensitive matter over the years.”

This “new phase” is imperative and fundamental, he explained, for “the stability and well-being of our community, with promptness and unity of vision so that the actions due are expeditiously implemented.”

Cardinal Farrell also is president of the Vatican’s Investment Committee, leads a commission determining confidential contracts and is the camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Ireland and served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 2002 to 2007 and bishop of Dallas from 2007 to 2016.

(OSV News) – Before joining other pro-life advocates at the March for Life in Washington, Shannon Allen spent an evening with thousands of other teens. Inside a darkened arena, the crowd around her clapped to the upbeat music, cheered for the speakers and knelt in silence as a Eucharistic procession wound its way through the stadium.

But what Allen remembers most from the pro-life rally was the feeling of not being alone.

“The biggest thing for me was just being with so many Catholics my age,” said Allen, a college student from Northern Virginia who has twice attended Life is VERY Good, a pro-life event for youth. “Oftentimes it feels like we’re a minority, so being able to be surrounded by thousands of people who are all for life the same way you are is comforting.”

Pro-life organizers are hoping to augment that sense of togetherness with the merger of two pre-march youth events, announced Nov. 14. The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, and host of Life is VERY Good since 2009, and the Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life, co-hosts of Life Fest since 2022, are joining forces to create one big pro-life rally called Life Fest ahead of the 2025 March for Life Jan. 24.

“This event will inspire a new generation and help them see that life at all stages is precious,” said Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly in a statement announcing the merger. “Love is the answer; it transforms lives and changes hearts and minds, and that’s what Life Fest is all about. Together, we pray for a world in which abortion is unthinkable.”

The two-day pro-life event will be held Jan. 23-24 at EagleBank Arena on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, 20 miles southwest of the National Mall and the March for Life. The EagleBank Arena has previously hosted Life is VERY Good, while Life Fest was held at the DC Armory in Washington.

Life Fest 2025 will begin with a night of praise, held the evening before the March for Life with speakers, live music and Eucharistic adoration. The following day, a morning rally and Mass will be held hours before the March for Life. Attendees will have the chance to go to confession and to venerate the relics of St. John Paul II, Blessed Carlo Acutis, the recently beatified Ulma family and Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus.

Organizers hope to attract some 8,400 participants to the event each day. A two-day ticket is $20.

“The Diocese of Arlington is excited to continue our long history of hosting groups from across the country and providing these participants with a peaceful time of prayer in preparation for the March for Life,” said Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in the Nov. 14 announcement. “We are especially excited that this year we will be working alongside the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus through this single ministry experience.”

Sister Marie Veritas, a Sister of Life and the community’s director of evangelization in Denver, said Life Fest affirms the dignity of every human being.

“We’re living in a time where the goodness of the human person is questioned,” she said in the Nov. 14 statement. “Every human heart needs to know: I am good; I am important; I am irreplaceable. Every woman who is pregnant needs to know that she is not alone. Every woman who has experienced one or more abortions needs to know that Jesus sees her, loves her and longs to forgive and heal her.”

During the pandemic, the Arlington Diocese’s Life is VERY Good event was considerably scaled down, said Kevin Bohli, the diocese’s executive director of the Office of Youth, Campus and Young Adult Ministries.

Then, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, many pro-life youth groups decided to forgo their annual trip to the national march and the Life is VERY Good event, likely to attend state marches instead, he said.

“We’re continuing to rise back out of those years,” Bohli told OSV News. “I think our numbers are going to increase because some of the groups are realizing there’s something very good for young people about making this trip to D.C. and seeing tens of thousands of young people very excited about being pro-life.”

Organizers also believe combining the two pro-life rallies into a larger one will pack a more powerful punch. “Together, we are stronger,” said Sister Marie Veritas in the statement. “Together, we can witness more powerfully to a broken world: Life is possible! Love is possible!”

Speakers and musicians for the upcoming Life Fest are yet to be announced. Past Life is VERY Good guests have included musician Matt Maher, The Catholic Channel’s Katie McGrady and “Real Life Catholic” host Chris Stefanick. Past Life Fest guests have included Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, now-retired archbishop of Boston, Sister of Life Bethany Madonna and musician Sarah Kroger.

Michael Albrigo, a student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and past attendee of Life is VERY Good, encouraged teens to attend Life Fest.

“It’s a good time – everyone there is excited to be there, the seminarians, the speakers, the sisters — and it’s important to take time out of our busy lives and dedicate that to things which we know and believe to be important,” he told OSV News.

Other Catholic pre-March for Life events include the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, which features evening Mass, adoration and Mass on the morning of the march.

SCRANTON – The Diocese of Scranton will hold the Retirement Fund for Religious collection Dec. 7-8.

The parish-based appeal is coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) in Washington, D.C. Proceeds help religious communities across the country to care for aging members.

Last year, the Diocese of Scranton donated nearly $80,000 to the collection.

Expressing gratitude for the “profound generosity” of U.S. Catholics, NRRO Executive Director John Knutsen emphasized the importance of ensuring the “comfort and dignity” of those who have served tirelessly.

“As we prepare for this year’s collection, we invite Catholics to join us in honoring the legacy of these dedicated women and men by contributing to their well-deserved care,” Knutsen said.

Hundreds of U.S. religious communities face a large gap between the needs of their older members and the funds available to support them.

Escalating healthcare costs and a lack of traditional retirement plans have created financial challenges for many religious communities. The Retirement Fund for Religious addresses this need, supporting more than 20,000 religious over the age of 70. In 2023, the average annual cost for their care was roughly $59,700 per person. With skilled nursing care, the average cost was $90,700.

Distributions are sent to each eligible order’s central house and provide supplemental funding for necessities, such as medications and nursing care.

Donations also help religious communities improve eldercare and plan for long-term retirement needs.

The 2023 appeal raised $29.3 million, with funding distributed to 286 U.S. religious communities.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – There are no second-class Christians, Pope Francis said. The laity, including women, and the clergy all have special gifts to edify the church in unity and holiness.

“The laity are not in last place. No. The laity are not a kind of external collaborator or the clergy’s ‘auxiliary troops.’ No! They have their own charisms and gifts with which to contribute to the mission of the church,” the pope said Nov. 20 at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Continuing a series of talks on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, Pope Francis looked at how the Holy Spirit builds up the Body of Christ through the outpouring of charismatic gifts.

The Holy Spirit “distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts, He makes them fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the church,” he said, quoting from the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Lumen Gentium.”

A charism is “the gift given for the common good, to be useful for everyone. It is not, in other words, destined principally and ordinarily for the sanctification of the person. No. It is intended, however, for the service of the community,” Pope Francis said.

“Secondly, the charism is the gift given to one or to some in particular, not to everyone in the same way, and this is what distinguishes it from sanctifying grace, from the theological virtues and from the sacraments, which instead are the same and common to all,” he said.

The definition of a charism is also part of what Pope Benedict XVI described in “the process of true renewal, which often took unexpected forms in living movements and made almost tangible the inexhaustible vitality of the holy church,” he added, quoting the late pope.

“We have to rediscover the charisms because this ensures that the promotion of the laity, and of women in particular, is understood not only as an institutional and sociological fact, but also in its biblical and spiritual dimension,” the pope said.

Charisms, he said, are sometimes misunderstood as being “spectacular or extraordinary gifts and capabilities.”

“Instead, they are ordinary gifts. Each one of us has his or her own charism that assumes extraordinary value if inspired by the Holy Spirit and embodied with love in situations of life,” he said.

“Such an interpretation of the charism is important, because many Christians, when they hear talk of charisms, experience sadness and disappointment, as they are convinced that they do not possess any, and feel they are excluded or second-class Christians,” he said.

“There are no second-class Christians. No. Each person has his or her own personal charism” that are gifts at the service of charity, in that they belong to all and are for the good of all, he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis announced that he will canonize Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati next year and that the Vatican will host a world meeting on the rights of the child Feb. 3.

The pope will canonize Blessed Acutis April 27, during the Jubilee for Adolescents in Rome April 25-27 and Blessed Frassati during the Jubilee of Young People in Rome July 28-Aug. 3.

The pope made the announcement during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 20, which is World Children’s Day.

The annual celebration marks the date when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and when the assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.

“On the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child and Adolescents that is celebrated today,” the pope said he wanted to announce holding a world meeting at the Vatican.

The World Leaders’ Summit on Children’s Rights will be dedicated to the theme of “Let’s love them and protect them,” and it will include experts and celebrities from different countries, the pope said.

“It will be an occasion to pinpoint new paths directed at better assisting and protecting children still without rights who live in precarious conditions. They are exploited and abused and suffer the dramatic consequences of wars,” he said.

A small group of children involved in preparing for the Feb. 3 meeting joined the pope for a photograph after the announcement along with Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, coordinator of the church’s first World Children’s Day, which was held in Rome May 25.

Pope Francis also established a new papal committee for World Children’s Day and named Father Fortunato its president.

The new committee, he said, will ensure that “World Children’s Day does not remain an isolated event” and that “the pastoral care for children increasingly becomes a more qualified priority in evangelical and pedagogical terms,” he said in the decree, also known as a chirograph, published by the Vatican Nov. 20.

The aim of the world day, he said, is to make a concrete contribution toward carrying out “the church’s commitment to children” by giving voice to children’s rights and making sure the church’s pastoral activities have the same kind of care and attention toward children Jesus had.

Other goals include helping the Christian community become more of “an educating community capable first of all of being evangelized by the voice of the little ones” and helping the church become more “like children” and let go of “signs of power” in order to become “a welcoming and livable home for all, starting with children,” the decree said.

Pope Francis said he wants the day to be celebrated at the universal, regional, national and local levels and, therefore, the committee will help promote and organize those celebrations with the universal event held “possibly every two years.”

“I entrust the preparation of World Children’s Day to the regional and national bishops’ conferences that will institute local organizing committees,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said the international community should investigate whether Israel’s military actions in Gaza constitute genocide.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of genocide. It should be investigated carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he said in a new book.

An excerpt from the book, “Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Toward a Better World,” written with the journalist Hernán Reyes Alcaide, was published Nov. 17 by Vatican News, the Italian newspaper La Stampa and the Spanish newspaper El País.

Yaron Sideman, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, posted on X a few hours later: “There was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens, and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defense against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens.”

“Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish State,” Sideman posted.

The pope made the comment in the context of speaking about global migration and the wars, economic hardships and climate disasters that force people to flee their homelands.

He praised Jordan and Lebanon for welcoming “millions of people fleeing the conflicts in the area – I am thinking especially of those leaving Gaza in the midst of the famine that has affected our Palestinian brothers and sisters because of the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory.”

The U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as any act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Formal recognition of genocide by a nation or by the U.N. International Court of Justice requires signatories to the convention to act to prevent further acts of genocide and to punish those responsible.

South Africa, on Dec. 29, 2023, filed an accusation of genocide against Israel with the International Court of Justice. Eight other nations have filed formal supporting complaints.

While not calling on Israel to withdraw from Gaza and halt all operations there, the court instructed Israel to exercise more control over its military to prevent acts which could be seen as contributing to genocide and to ensure humanitarian aid could reach Gaza.

In a report Sept. 20 to the U.N. General Assembly, the body’s Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories said it had “serious concerns of breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including starvation as a weapon of war, the possibility of genocide in Gaza and an apartheid system in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

After South Africa filed its case with the international court, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted his country had a right to defend itself against Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack and said, “the mere claim that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians is not only false, it’s outrageous.”

PARIS (OSV News) – Miraculously missed by burning beams falling from the roof on April 15, 2019, and waiting for five years to make it back to Notre Dame Cathedral, the 14th-century statue of the Virgin of Paris made it back home Nov. 15, accompanied by thousands of Parisians praying, singing and lighting candles as they walked their Virgin to Paris’ most iconic church, restored after the fire.

Since the fire, the statue, also referred to as Virgin and Child, or the Virgin of the Pillar, has been housed near the Louvre in the Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, from where the procession started at 6 p.m. local time.

For Auxiliary Bishop Philippe Marsset of Paris, the statue represents “a kind of miracle.”

“Many Christians saw the fire as a sign of the purification God was asking his church to experience,” he told OSV News. “The statue of the Virgin was spared in the flames and the waters. It remained standing, as a sign that heaven was watching over us, and that this disaster would not have the last word.”

It seemed like the entire city, typically proud of its “laïcité,” or secularism, wanted to be with her the night of Nov. 15. All major newspapers and websites in the country invited Parisians to join throughout the day, making her the top of the news cycle, with a brief pause to report on surprise off-camera “reconnaissance” visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, who sneaked unexpectedly inside the cathedral Nov. 15, before the announced meeting planned on site with the archbishop of Paris Nov. 29, Le Figaro confirmed.

The Virgin of Paris quickly took back center stage in the evening. Standing 6 feet high and sculpted in white stone, the copy of the original statue was solemnly walked to the cathedral as the original was transported by a special truck.

From 1855 – the first major restoration of the cathedral in the 19th century – it was standing at the foot of the southeast pillar of the transept crossing, a position that earned the statue the name Virgin of the Pillar.

When the fire broke out in April 2019, the statue was found soaked by water from the firefighter units and surrounded by ashes, next to pieces of fallen timber, and stone rubble from the collapsed transept vault. But the surface was intact. The following October, it was moved to Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, where Notre Dame’s liturgical activities had been transferred.

As the long-anticipated Marian procession was about to start, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris welcomed the crowd on the square in front of the church, along with the chaplains of Notre Dame, and knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, dressed in their white capes.

Transporting the real statue of the Virgin on foot was out of the question for security reasons. Instead, everyone was able to witness her departure by truck, before setting off, with candles and singing, behind a replica, illuminated and decorated with white flowers. The procession followed the banks of the Seine River toward the Île de la Cité, one of two Parisian islands and home to Notre Dame Cathedral.

Arriving in front of the cathedral at around 7 p.m., the pilgrims were greeted by the singing of the Maîtrise Notre Dame, the cathedral’s choir, homeless but traveling the world for the last five years. The archbishop blessed the original statue, the crate carrying it having been opened so that it could be seen. The truck then entered the cathedral’s construction site.

At the same time, the “Pèlerinage des Pierres Vivantes,” or “Pilgrimage of the Living Stones” — a youth association of the Archdiocese of Paris — led a prayer vigil in front of the cathedral.

“It was an opportunity to remind us that even before the doors are officially open, Notre Dame is a building destined for prayer,” Noémie Teyssier d’Orfeuil, a volunteer leader, told OSV News.

“Originally, the return of the statue was a logistical event. But the opportunity was seized to turn it into a missionary and popular event,” she said.

For Teyssier d’Orfeuil, this pilgrimage symbolized “the restoration of Notre Dame’s cult vocation,” prior to its inauguration by the official authorities of the French state and cultural world on the weekend of Dec. 7-8.

“The cathedral is first and foremost an icon of the mystery of the church,” the young French Catholic said.

Inside the cathedral, the original statue is once again being installed not far from the altar, near the pillar at the foot of which the famous French writer and diplomat Paul Claudel converted on Christmas Day 1886.

In 1913, he described the conversion moment: “It was the gloomiest winter day and the darkest rainy afternoon over Paris,” he wrote. He recalled standing “near the second pillar at the entrance to the chancel, to the right, on the side of the sacristy,” when “occurred the event” which dominated his “entire life.”

“In an instant, my heart was touched and I believed,” Claudel wrote. “I believed with such a strength of adherence, with such an uplifting of my entire being, with such powerful conviction, with such a certainty leaving no room for any kind of doubt, that since then all the books, all the arguments, all the incidents and accidents of a busy life have been unable to shake my faith, nor indeed to affect it in any way.”

Father Gaëtan de Bodard, new chaplain of the iconic Paris’ fire brigade that saved Notre Dame — and successor to Father Jean-Marc Fournier, who courageously ran into the burning cathedral to first preserve the Blessed Sacrament, bless the burning church and then save the crown of thorns — said that Notre Dame today is already a witness to new miracles of conversion.

“I personally know one of the firefighters who intervened that evening at Notre Dame and who rediscovered his faith at that moment,” Father de Bodard told OSV News. “He had turned away from his faith in the face of all the suffering, pain, deprivation, loneliness, blood and wounds he saw. But on the night of the fire, he was moved to see the whole city of Paris at a standstill, and people praying on their knees in the streets,” the new chaplain of Paris’ firefighters unit said.

“Inside, he was struck by the luminous cross of Christ shining in the choir, after the collapse of the spire. He felt a guiding presence, which marked the beginning of a profound rapprochement with God,” Father de Bodard said.

For Bishop Marsset the cross inside the destroyed cathedral and the saved Virgin of the Pillar are signs that there is hope “beyond destruction.”

“Mary, in her humility, and the cross, in its radiance, gave us the direction: ‘Church, cross over your ashes, assume what you have done, do penance, and at the end of this road, there is a ‘beyond disaster.'”