(ZENIT News / Paris, 08.02.2025).- In the heart of Montparnasse, where café chatter blends with the distant rumble of the Métro, the quiet devotion of Notre-Dame-des-Champs has been violently interrupted. In the span of just 24 hours, the church—an architectural testament to the endurance of Catholic tradition in modern Paris—was struck by two separate fires. One, likely an accident. The other, something more troubling.
On the morning of July 23, a fault in the church’s electrical circuit sparked a blaze in the choir loft. It destroyed the organ and silenced the sound system, leaving not just a physical void but a symbolic one. Then, scarcely a day later, fire returned—this time in a side chapel dedicated to St. Joseph. There, wooden panels were deliberately set alight. Flames climbed to a newly restored painting and damaged it badly. The statue of St. Joseph, patron of fathers and workers, was knocked down and shattered amid the chaos of the firefighters’ response.
No one was injured, but the emotional wound to the parish community runs deep. “This second fire caused even more damage,” wrote Father Camille Millour, the parish priest, in a message to parishioners posted on July 25. His tone was calm, measured, but unmistakably marked by sorrow. He confirmed that investigations are ongoing and thanked emergency services for their swift intervention. He also filed a formal complaint with the police, jointly with the city of Paris. The archbishop of Paris, he said, has voiced his solidarity with the affected community.
The church, a spiritual refuge for locals and tourists alike, will now remain closed for an indefinite period. The doors that welcomed generations of worshippers will stay shut—no Masses, no confessions. Silence of a different kind will reign.
Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mayor of Paris’s sixth arrondissement, took to social media to express his alarm. «A second fire in less than 24 hours at Notre-Dame-des-Champs! The investigation will clarify the causes, but the proximity of these events raises serious questions,» he posted. He also demanded an urgent technical audit of the church’s electrical systems, highlighting that the fire alarm had failed to activate during the first incident.
That failure may well prove critical. Father Millour had already planned to modernize the church’s lighting and electrical network ahead of its 150th anniversary next year. Now, what was a symbolic renovation has become a pressing necessity—for beauty, yes, but above all for safety.
Though not widely reported outside France, the attack is part of a disturbing trend. According to «The Tablet», France has recorded 50 confirmed or attempted arson attacks on churches this year—up sharply from 38 in 2023. The motives vary: ideological, political, or simply nihilistic. But the cumulative toll on communities of faith is unmistakable. Places that have stood as witnesses to centuries of devotion are increasingly treated as targets, not sanctuaries.
Notre-Dame-des-Champs has long served as more than a parish church. Built on the site of an ancient Roman temple to Mercury, it stands as a metaphorical palimpsest—layers of worship written one atop the other. Its 19th-century walls, designed by the famed architect Léon Ginain, blend neo-Romanesque clarity with modernist restraint. But even stone can be wounded, and wounds leave marks.
What happens next for the parish will depend not only on engineers and insurance agents but on the resilience of the faithful. Already, Father Millour has suggested that the community’s campaign to replace the lighting system must now take on greater urgency—not merely as an aesthetic project, but as a declaration: that churches must not just survive, but shine again.
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