[PHOTOS] Notre-Dame’s first Christmas masses since the fire fill the faithful with “joy”

Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich is due to preside over Christmas Day mass at Notre-Dame de Paris on Wednesday morning, celebrating for the first time since the 2019 fire.

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In addition to this celebration scheduled for 11 a.m. (10 a.m. GMT) and broadcast on France 2, two other services are planned in the cathedral, at 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Access to Notre-Dame remains subject to a strict limit of 2,700 people, while enthusiasm remains strong for access to this building magnified by the writer Victor Hugo and glorified in various films, novels and musicals.

Tuesday, Christmas Eve, the cathedral attracted many faithful for several services, in particular for the traditional Midnight Mass.

“Joy in heaven, peace on earth, Merry Christmas to all of you who are here in this cathedral to celebrate the feast of Christmas,” Bishop Ulrich said to the Catholics gathered on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in this masterpiece Gothic from the 12th century.

He had earlier paid tribute in a message to the “talents deployed on the restoration site” which allowed “the pain of the fire and the five years of separation to be erased to leave only the joy of reunion, the joy of 'to live together again in this common house, the house of God'.

Since the fire which devastated it on April 15, 2019, the cathedral had no longer hosted these Nativity masses celebrating, for Christians, the birth of Jesus.

“Feeling of hope, joy”

Marie-Christine Bascourret, a retiree dressed all in red, was able to attend the 4 p.m. mass on Tuesday. She told AFP that she found it “magnificent”. She decided at 2 p.m. and waited in line for an hour: “It gave me heart.”

“It’s a special tradition. I came to mass here every year for ten years before the fire,” explained Daniel James, a 46-year-old American flight attendant who lives in Seattle. “I’m so happy to come back, it’s so magical and special, it’s a feeling of hope, of joy.”

“Since 8 a.m. this morning (Tuesday), the line has been continuous,” testified Valentin Lacroix, responsible for controlling entries. Before 3 p.m., around a hundred people were waiting on the square: families, couples, coming from Paris, the provinces or even abroad.

“No reservations are possible for Christmas masses” and access to the cathedral is “subject to availability,” said the diocese of Paris.

The Notre-Dame website therefore advises arriving 30 minutes before the time of the celebrations, “keeping in mind that queues can be long, with a risk of not being able to access the cathedral” .

Florence Kergorrou, a Parisian, was surprised on Tuesday that the line moved so quickly to enter the cathedral. “We’re going to be early!”, laughed the one who came to “associate the mass with the monument”, “kill two birds with one stone”.

After five years of colossal work, Notre-Dame de Paris reopened on December 7, during a ceremony in the presence of several personalities including the American president-elect Donald Trump and the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

For Catholics, this Christmas also marks the beginning of the Jubilee, the “Holy Year” 2025 of the Catholic Church opened Tuesday evening by Pope Francis from the Vatican. On the occasion of this great international pilgrimage, 30 million faithful from all over the world are expected in Rome.

Wednesday at 12 p.m. (11 a.m. GMT), during his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the city and to the world”) blessing, the 88-year-old Argentine Jesuit is also expected to renew his calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.