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Impoverished Altruism

A little after six o’clock in the evening on April 15, 2019, the Monday before Easter, while Mass was being celebrated, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris caught fire. Incompetent security staff initially failed to locate the blaze (up a narrow flight of 300 steps in the main attic); for half an hour, the medieval church burned out of control before the fire department was called. Soon, shocked Parisians, drawn by the smoke, lined the banks of the River Seine; on social media, the rest of the world watched in disbelief as the mounting inferno consumed the intricate oak lattice of the roof and transformed the needle-like flèche—the church’s spire—into a refulgent pillar of flame.

City Journal     May 11, 2025