As Pope Leo XIV visits the restored Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, one man who witnessed the devastating 2019 fire is sharing the remarkable story of faith, sacrifice and human dedication that unfolded during the cathedral’s reconstruction.
André Finot, who served for nearly a decade as Notre-Dame’s communications manager, was inside the cathedral as the fire began on April 15, 2019. He took what would become the final photograph of Notre-Dame before flames engulfed its roof and iconic spire, according to Vatican News.
Finot later spent six years closely following the reconstruction alongside the architects, craftsmen and thousands of workers charged with restoring one of Christianity’s most recognizable churches.
His connection to the effort to preserve Notre-Dame actually began before the fire.
Finot told Vatican News that in 2016 he met American art history professor Andrew Tallon, who warned that the cathedral was already in serious condition.
“He told me that Notre-Dame was in very bad condition and that we needed to create a charity in the United States to raise money to save it,” Finot recalled.
The effort eventually became Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris. Before the fire, the organization had raised €8 million and restoration work had begun on the cathedral’s spire. Following the disaster, fundraising expanded dramatically.
“In total, we eventually raised €840 million, largely in France but also in the United States and around the world, to save and restore the cathedral over six and a half years,” Finot told Vatican News.
But for many of those who participated in the reconstruction, restoring Notre-Dame became more than an architectural project.
Finot said approximately 4,000 people were involved in the reconstruction. When he entered the cathedral with firefighters and an architect the day after the blaze, he found extensive destruction throughout the choir and transepts. Yet amid the devastation, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had survived.
For a time, the statue remained in place while work began around it.
“During the months it remained there, the workers would come every morning and say hello to the Virgin Mary,” Finot recalled.
The connection between the workers and the sacred character of the cathedral became even clearer when Finot arranged for a Nativity scene to be placed inside Notre-Dame for Christmas in 2022.
Some workers told him, “We are Jewish, Muslim, atheist—we are nothing—but we are so proud to work for the cathedral. This is the house of the Mother of God, and we are proud to be here.”
Finot said the experience showed him that, for those involved, the project had become “much more than simply restoring a building.”
Another emotional moment came just three months before Notre-Dame reopened. Workers standing on scaffolding high inside the cathedral saw a restored image of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in an oculus above them.
“They were incredibly proud. Some of them were crying,” Finot told Vatican News.
The cathedral’s chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve, also viewed the restoration in deeply personal terms.
According to Finot, Villeneuve had loved Notre-Dame since childhood and decided at age 10 that he wanted to become an architect after his mother brought him to see the cathedral. He became Notre-Dame’s architect in 2012 and, following the fire, immediately began planning the immense reconstruction ahead.
Finot said Villeneuve credits more than human effort for what followed.
“I can’t tell you who this person is, but someone up there helped me restore this cathedral,” the architect has said, according to Finot.
Now restored, Notre-Dame once again stands at the heart of Paris as Pope Leo XIV visits France.
Finot described the cathedral as an enduring symbol not only for Catholics but for the French people and visitors from around the world.
“We sometimes say that Notre-Dame is the Cathedral of France,” he told Vatican News. “It is one of the most visited historical monuments in Europe, welcoming millions of visitors every year.”
For Finot, the cathedral’s survival may also carry a deeper spiritual meaning at a time when regular Mass attendance in France has declined.
“Perhaps he is hoping for a resurrection of the faith, in the same way that we witnessed the resurrection of the cathedral,” Finot said of Pope Leo’s visit.
After six years spent alongside the men and women who brought Notre-Dame back from the devastation of the fire, however, Finot has one particularly simple hope for the Pope’s visit: that those workers will not be forgotten.
“They gave six years of their lives to Notre Dame,” he said. “I would simply like to thank them.”
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