Tea at Trianon: Notre Dame’s Rebuilding

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Notre Dame’s Rebuilding

From TFP:

Something about Notre Dame Cathedral overwhelms and fascinates the postmodern mind. Even in its present damaged state, the charred building commands the world’s attention. The cathedral’s authenticity prevailed over all attempts to disfigure it with a restoration of brutal modernistic redesigns.
When the spire and roof burned and collapsed on that fateful April 15, 2019, everyone was transfixed by the event. It was a day when the world wept, as something of France’s soul seemed lost. Outpourings of condolences and financial support arrived from around the world.
Now, as the first oaks are selected for the rebuilding, the world looks on in awe. Media everywhere carried stories on the selection process and felling ceremony. This is no ordinary project; it touches the Catholic soul of France and the world.
The intense interest in the reconstruction process is a reminder of the Church’s tremendous power over souls. Despite the apocalyptical crisis of faith within the Church, things like Notre Dame speak to the shallow emptiness of today’s postmodernity. The poor metaphysical orphans of this lost century crave the beauty, depth and sublimity that only the Church can offer. (Read more.)