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June 25, 2019 | The Valley Catholic
IN THE CHURCH
Paris Archbishop Celebrates First Mass in Notre Dame Since Fire
PARIS (CNS) -- The archbishop of
Paris wore a hard hat as he celebrated
the first Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral
since a huge blaze devastated the land-
mark building in April.
The Mass was celebrated in the Cha-
pel of the Virgin June 15 by Archbishop
Michel Aupetit to mark the anniversary
of the consecration of the cathedral’s
altar, an event that usually takes place
June 16 each year.
About 30 invited guests -- mostly
clergy, cathedral employees and build-
ing contractors -- wore protective
headgear because of dangers of falling
masonry, although the Virgin chapel,
situated behind the choir, had been
designated as safe.
In his homily, Archbishop Aupetit
did not mention the fire but stressed
the purpose of Notre Dame as a place
of Christian worship, and not an orna-
ment of the secular state.
He said the building could never be
reduced to a cultural or “patrimonial
good” and warned the congregation
that if Jesus was removed as the cor-
nerstone, it would collapse in a spiritual
rather than a physical sense.
The cathedral would simply be an
“empty shell, a jewelry box without
Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris celebrates Mass in the Chapel of the Virgin inside Notre
Dame Cathedral June 15, 2019. It was the first Mass since a huge blaze devastated the
landmark building in April. (CNS photo/Karine Perret, pool via Reuters)
riches, a skeleton without life, a body
without a soul,” the archbishop said.
“The cathedral is born of the faith
of our ancestors,” he said during the
Mass, which was broadcast by KTO, a
French Catholic TV channel.
“This cathedral is born of the Chris-
tian hope, which perceives well beyond
a small self-centered personal life to en-
ter a magnificent project at the service
of all, projecting well beyond a single
generation.”
“It is also born of charity since, open
to all, it is the refuge of the poor and the
excluded who found there their pro-
tection,” he added. “Are we ashamed
of the faith of our ancestors? Are we
ashamed of Christ?”
The cathedral was most significantly
a mirror of “the living stones” of the
members of the church who worship
there, he said.
“Can ignorance or ideology really
separate culture from worship?” asked
Archbishop Aupetit. “Let me put this
bluntly -- culture without worship be-
comes a negative culture.
“You only have to look at the abys-
mal religious ignorance of our contem-
poraries because of the exclusion of any
divine notion and the very name of
God in the public sphere by invoking
a secularism that excludes any visible
spiritual dimension,” he said.
The cathedral has been closed since
April 15, when it was engulfed by fire
that destroyed its spire and much of its
vaulted ceiling.
French President Emmanuel Ma-
cron wants the cathedral rebuilt in
five years, but Culture Minister Franck
Riester told French radio June 14 that so
far just 80 million euros of the 850 mil-
lion euros pledged has been received,
with most of it coming from small
donations.
He said the cathedral, originally
built in the 12th and 13th centuries,
remained in a “fragile state,” with
unsecured sections of the vaulted roof
still in danger of collapse.
Scottish Bishops Authorize Independent Audit of Each Diocese
By Simon Caldwell
Catholic News Service
MANCHESTER, England -- The
Catholic bishops of Scotland have au-
thorized an independent audit of every
diocese in the country to ensure child
protection procedures are as robust as
possible.
Baroness (Helen) Liddell of Coat-
dyke, chairman of the Independent
Review Group of the Roman Catholic
Church, said the bishops had “shown a
willingness to submit their dioceses to
the utmost scrutiny.”
She said that the audits were “a major
undertaking, unique in Scotland,” but
added that they were necessary because
self-administered audits had given the
review group “real cause for concern.”
“There was a willingness to meet
basic compliance standards, but little
evidence of the requirements of a safer
culture,” she said in a June 15 statement
sent by email to Catholic News Service.
“There was also no way to check the
accuracy of the results, and a lack of
clarity regarding the needs of, and sup-
port for, the victims of abuse.”
The baroness said there was “a
need for greater consistency, inde-
pendent analysis and professionalism
in monitoring progress” and also a
reexamination of the processes for
whistle-blowing.
“There needs to be a change in cul-
ture, in capacity, in capability, and that
needs training, learning, reflection, the
utmost transparency and it needs lead-
ership,” said Baroness Liddell.
“We have found a willingness to
adopt that change, but true progress
can only come about as a result of deep
analysis of strengths and weaknesses,”
she said.
Two of the eight Scottish dioceses
-- the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and
Edinburgh and the Diocese of Galloway
-- have already been audited, and the
remainder will be audited at the rate of
two a year, she added.
Her statement accompanied the pub-
lication of the review group’s first report
on safeguarding practices and policies
in the Scottish Catholic Church.
Bishop Joseph Toal of Motherwell,
who has responsibility for overseeing
the work of the Scottish Catholic Safe-
guarding Service, welcomed the report.
“We shall take time to give it serious
consideration,” he said. “Since setting
up the Independent Review Group, we
have taken steps to improve safeguard-
ing practices in all eight dioceses in
Scotland.
“The most significant of these actions
include the publication of ‘In God’s
Image’ (our manual of safeguarding
procedures), a radical revision of the
annual safeguarding audit, which is
completed in every Catholic parish and,
most recently, entirely independent au-
dits of safeguarding practice in two of
our dioceses,” he said.
“We are determined to apply what
we learn ... and to ensure that the high-
est standards of safeguarding practice
are met throughout the Church in
Scotland.”
Safeguarding practices in the Scot-
tish Catholic Church were first reviewed
by the McLellan Commission, set up
in 2013.
In August 2015 the commission
published a report recommending
external and independent scrutiny of
polices and practice, and the bishops
responded by establishing the review
group in May 2017.
Eritrean Catholic Bishops say Government
Closes Church-Run Health Centers
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- All health
facilities run by the Catholic Church
in Eritrea have been seized by the
government, the country’s bishops
said. Government security officers
are said to have removed the staff
from the health centers and closed
them. Patients were ordered to go
home and soldiers were deployed to
guard the centers, the bishops said
in a June 13 letter to the ministry of
health. The church runs more than
20 clinics in Eritrea, and many are on
the property of monasteries. In their
letter, the bishops said the services
the church provides to Eritreans could
not be construed as an act of opposing
the government. The church’s main
concern is the people in need of the
services that the government action
has halted, it said. In a May interview
with Catholic News Service in Nai-
robi, an Eritrean Catholic nun said the
government has some control over the
church in the country and that it is a
“closed” church. “We are subjected to
looking over our shoulders to serve the
people” of Eritrea, she said, noting that
the freedom the church has in other
countries “is not with us.”