“Paris is Burning” is supposed to be the name of a 1990 American documentary, not the main news on the internet earlier this week.
Yet many of us were transfixed to television and computer screens Monday as the Notre Dame Cathedral had a frightening orange glow from a fire believed to have started from a $6 million renovation project. Over the course of 12 hours, the fire toppled an iconic spire and destroyed much of the roof.
While this spiritual icon started to burn, I was up on the Menominee reservation, witnessing and chronicling another spiritual icon return to the Wolf River. Many tribal members lined the road to watch as Department of Natural Resources employees and fellow Menominee transferred sturgeon from a tanker truck to a nearby creek bed.
For the tribe, seeing their sacred animals being restored to their native habitat was an experience not to be missed. It was as important to the Menominee tribe as Notre Dame is to billions of Christians around the world.
While on this assignment, my cellphone buzzed in my pocket as my sweetheart, Todd, was trying to reach me. I was in the middle of an interview at the time and did not answer. Once I was done, I called back, and he said, “Notre Dame is on fire.”
At first, I thought he was talking about the university, but then he told me it was the cathedral. I’m not Catholic, but it still brought a shiver down my spine because I knew about its historical significance and the religious artifacts that were kept within its walls. Fires can often consume buildings and everything within quickly, so it was fortunate that it didn’t spread.
The parallels between the Menominee with their sturgeon and the Christian faithful with the cathedral are striking. For hundreds of years, the sturgeon traveled up the Wolf River to the reservation to spawn. Then the Shawano dam was built and devastated a spiritual experience, as the sturgeon could no longer travel to Menominee land.
That changed over two decades ago when a deal was struck for the DNR to truck sturgeon up to portion of the Wolf River neighboring Keshena Falls. There was certainly the risk that the sturgeon would return downstream through the dam after spawning, but it gave the Menominee people a chance to pay tribute to the animal that makes up one of their five major clans.
Likewise, Christians everywhere will see Notre Dame whole again. It might take years or decades, but it’s not so easy to erase a piece of history. Look at Windsor Castle in England, which fell victim to fire in 1992, or St. Mel’s Cathedral, which was destroyed in 2009. Both were rebuilt, as Notre Dame will be.
Interestingly enough, it’s been reported that there was great difficulty raising money for the original renovation plans. It’s ironic how the building had to nearly experience oblivion for the donations to start flowing. More than $1 billion had been pledged less than 48 hours after the fire started, a stark difference to before the blaze, when the French government was dickering with the Archdiocese over who should pay the cost.
The tune has changed since the gray stone walls are showing black streaks of soot. Why is it that people only care more about history when it’s about to bulldozed, burned down or buried? We’re talking about a building that has stood for over 850 years, that hadn’t seen any major renovations since the 1840s and that serves as a major cultural attraction for Paris. The fire is a minor tragedy by comparison to the neglect.
Then again, it’s hard to miss something if it doesn’t go away. In a way, people around the world have had their appreciation bolstered, not to mention their faith. Martin Micale, the pastor at the Lake Powell Church of the Nazarene in Page, Arizona (my last newspaper assignment before moving to Wisconsin), noted on a Facebook post Wednesday morning that, while a church is more the people than the building in which they worship, the building itself is where many memories of faith are created.
”When a church building burns down, all the churches in the community suffer the loss,” Micale wrote. “The members of the church that burns are brothers and sisters of all Christians. We grieve with them because we know that they are hurt because of the loss. We pray for them, love them, and offer our help to them.”
It’s never easy to lose a place you call home, whether it’s a place you lay your head down or a place where you bow your head. Just imagine how we’d feel here in Shawano County if we lost Hope Community Church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church or any of the dozens of churches that dot our landscape. It’s important to take time to grieve, but it’s also important to believe that, just like Jesus Christ himself, Notre Dame will rise again.
Rural Roots and American Rainbows 