Tens of millions of people all over the world are shocked by the fire that destroyed much of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris last night. President Macron has promised to rebuild it and hundreds of millions of euro have already been pledge for that purpose. The magnificent cathedral is not alone a symbol of France, or even of Western civilisation, it is above all a symbol of Christian and Catholic faith and must be repaired accordingly.

In an article in The Catholic Herald today, C.C. Pecknold gets to the heart of the matter when he writes: “As the spire cracked and buckled, millions of us felt civilization trembling. But trembling at what? At the loss of God? At the sudden recognition that, for all our progressive confidence, deep down everyone knows that Western civilization lacks the philosophical and religious principles that once made such a structure possible in the first place?”

You can read the whole piece here.