France: Notre Dame cathedral celebrates its first mass since fire

Five years after a fire in 2019 nearly destroyed paris' beloved 12th-century cathedral, notre dame is once again celebrating christmas eve masses.

Transcript

00:00Five years after a fire in 2019 nearly destroyed Paris' beloved 12th-century cathedral,

00:06Notre-Dame is once again celebrating Christmas Eve masses.

00:09Four different masses were taking place Tuesday with a midnight mass to be led by the Paris

00:15Archbishop Laurent Ulrich. The first two masses of the day drew some 2,000 people,

00:21each many worshippers, others there to walk inside and gaze at the richness of the restoration.

00:28There were no reservations, just a long queue on the forecourt of the cathedral.

00:34Following the 2019 fire, nearly $1 billion in donations poured

00:38in from around the world, a tribute to its worldwide appeal.

00:46They did such an amazing job. It looks beautiful. I saw it once before many, many years ago and so

00:51it's just really special to be back and just see all the hard work that's gone back into it.

00:55It was really nice. It blew us away. It's a really special night. It's really a nice

01:00thing to be a part of. So it's so incredible to be here inside for the first time. I was

01:05here five years ago but I was here right after the fire so I did not get to come inside so

01:10to wait to come inside to be with these guys was really, really amazing.