The world continues to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the lives it has taken. That this global outbreak occurred during Lent put a renewed focus on where and how people practice their faith, especially in so many countries where houses of worship have been shuttered to weaken the spread of the virus.
It is in this context that the date April 15 takes on larger significance this year. It marks the one-year anniversary of an accidental fire that destroyed large sections of Notre Dame, the famed gothic cathedral that soars over the Parisian skyline. The French capitol hasn’t been the same since the blaze.
A year later, there remain so many unanswered questions about the cathedral’s future, how and when it will be rebuilt and what hurdles remain. The current pandemic has shifted attention and journalistic resources away from a story like the status and future of Notre Dame. Journalists are limited in their ability to travel to Paris, for example, to report on this story as France remains on lockdown — like most of the world.
A sweep of news sites shows that the cathedral did get some attention in the days before Easter — but only because a special Mass was celebrated there on Good Friday. The cathedral’s most prized relic, the Crown of Thorns, even made a return after it had been rescued from the blaze.
Anniversary journalism is a big part of what editor’s remember when assigning stories every morning, when making pitches in editorial meetings or for stories to fill their Sunday editions.
Despite that, Notre Dame fire coverage has been sparse a year later, especially in the U.S.-based press. It is also a religion story and one that the mainstream press largely covered a year ago like it wasn’t. In general, the fire was covered like it had destroyed a museum rather than a house of worship. Anniversary coverage also remained focus on the building, but had no mention or quotes from religious leaders.
As mentioned, Easter did bring Notre Dame temporarily back into the news cycle. The New York Post, in its Easter Sunday editorial, held up the cathedral as a metaphor for our current troubled times:
As Notre Dame recovers from its ravages, so may we all rebound from the ravages of COVID-19.
Metaphors aside, there are lingering questions about what the future holds for this iconic structure.
Great journalism is about asking the right questions. The BBC did just that in its reporting on how the restoration efforts are progressing. Here’s how their story opened:
When the wind blows around Notre Dame these days, strange, whistling chimes fill the air. A ghostly harmony made by the gaping holes in the old medieval structure, left by the fire exactly a year ago.
For most of the past year, this quiet music was drowned out by the noises of construction work, the tourists and traffic around Notre Dame. But today this Gothic giant stands silent and empty.
The cranes hang awkward and frozen above its scaffolding, the usual flow of tourists queuing for selfies outside the freshly-built hoarding has gone.
The restrictions in place to deal with coronavirus have meant that all restoration work here has stopped.
The BBC goes on to report on the meticulous work being done to secure the building and the lead contamination that was found.
The BBC and fellow British outlet The Guardian, along with other foreign news sites, came though when it comes to Notre Dame coverage a year later and the difficulties of returning the cathedral to its previous splendor. Wire services, like Reuters, did a Notre Dame one year later piece and provide American news outlets the chance to have foreign news in its pages and websites without having to spend money on reporters and bureaus.
The New York Times, with journalists located around the planet, ran several wire stories — instead of original reporting — to mark the grim anniversary, including this one from The Associated Press. USA Today posted a piece as well, with no dateline and citing heavily from The Guardian and AP.
As early as Tuesday evening, newspapers were posting content about the cathedral to their websites. Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, also known as DW, did a phenomenal job reporting on the hurdles that stand in the way with the help interviews with a variety of experts. The DW feature typifies the work that foreign news sites — and their English-language online editions — have done reporting on the reconstruction of Notre Dame.
Below is a key section from that piece:
The greatest challenge in establishing the static condition of the structure is the fact that scaffolding from before the blaze still remains on part of the building. To safely remove what remains of it — parts of it also melted and clumped together during the fire — all the beams at the top of the nave would first have to be fortified.
The weather conditions for many months after the fire did not allow for such a major operation to begin however. Now that the weather’s been more lenient, the corona crisis is slowing down any further progress. For the time being, Macron’s 5-year plan would appear to be off the agenda.
In all, $1.6 billion was donated to the restoration effort — a figure pointed out by Australian media site News.con.au, which is owned by News Corporation. The money pledged by some of France’s wealthy citizens has largely materialized, Business Insider reported recently, and that’s a good thing.
French President Emmanuel Macron had announced soon after the destruction that Notre Dame would be rebuilt “more beautiful than before.” He also gave an aggressive timeline for its completion in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics, which Paris is scheduled to host. It should be noted that the pandemic forced the postponement of this summer’s Tokyo Games to 2021.
Twelve months after the inferno, details about this project remain sparse. The hurdles the cathedral faces — in regards to architecture and the financial constraints — were well documented a year ago. That France remains in lockdown due to COVID-19 hasn’t helped. The economic fallout from the pandemic certainly won’t help either.
There have been some outlandish ideas floated about what to do with the cathedral’s roof. The DW piece adds the following details addressing Notre Dame’s future:
Whether any of those ideas become reality is unknown; the government tender for the architectural design of the restored cathedral is due to be tabled in June 2020 — if the economic aftershock of the novel coronavirus doesn’t throw another curveball.
Once a final decision is taken in terms of design, restoration work is expected to start in earnest in 2021.
The pandemic currently engulfing the planet has certainly delay things as well as hampered the efforts of U.S. journalists to travel to Paris for the story.
Nonetheless, journalists around the world need to keep asking questions now and once the pandemic ends. At stake isn’t just a piece of great architecture, but a religious symbol for millions of believers and a major landmark of Western civilization. That’s a news story.
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