Ep. 332 - Notre Dame Isn’t A Museum—It’s A Church
Summary
The facade of Notre Dame remains, but the heart of the 800-year-old cathedral has been turned to ash. Is there any more fitting metaphor for the state of Western civilization? We ll analyze the difference between appearance and reality, from Paris all the way to the 2020 presidential primaries.
Transcript
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The facade of Notre Dame remains, but the heart of the 800-year-old cathedral has been turned to ash.
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Is there any more fitting metaphor for the state of Western civilization?
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We will analyze the difference between appearance and reality,
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from Paris all the way to the 2020 presidential primaries.
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I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
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A brutal news cycle yesterday, watching the Cathedral of Notre Dame burning, the spire falling.
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There are some silver linings here, some of it has been saved,
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but the broader takeaway is not even just about this priceless cathedral, this defining aspect of the West.
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It's a broader cultural problem. We'll get to it in a second.
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The cathedral at Notre Dame caught fire yesterday.
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We don't know what is going to happen now, how they're going to rebuild,
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tweeted out something that so typifies our culture.
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I'm actually not going after her because she's defending terrorists this time.
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I'm not going after her because she's downplaying terrorist attacks.
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I'm not going after her for the reasons we've been going after her for the past couple of weeks.
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her response to the burning of Notre Dame exemplifies our culture.
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It shows you just what's wrong with a culture that would let Notre Dame burn.
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Art and architecture have a unique ability to help us connect across our differences
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Thinking of the people of Paris and praying for every first responder trying to save this wonder.
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So she's saying we're thinking of these people in Paris.
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Art and architecture have a unique ability to help us connect across our differences.
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Is she referring to that painting on the wall behind me,
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She's talking about a cathedral, but she won't say the word cathedral.
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Thinking of the people of Paris, art and architecture, that's all it is.
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And if you don't think it has meaning, that's the rot in the culture.
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The rot in now the ruins of Notre Dame is a symbol of the rot in this Western culture.
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Officials are apparently ruling out terrorism and arson.
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This was suggested it might be an act of terrorism or arson.
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And yet the mainstream media are refusing to even entertain that possibility.
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Yesterday, Shepard Smith on Fox News shut a guy down within seconds of even raising the possibility.
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So, of course, you will hear the story about the politically correct,
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the political correctness, which will tell you that it's probably an accident.
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We're not going to speculate here of the cause of something which we don't know.
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So, if you have observations or you know something, we would love to hear it.
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Now, why does he bring up the possibility that this was arson or terror?
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Because there's been a spate of desecrations at churches and cathedrals all throughout France.
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Just in the last weeks, there have been statues smashed, tabernacles knocked down.
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The tabernacle, for those who don't know, is the box that houses the blessed sacrament,
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Just last Sunday, at the church of Saint-Sulpice, it was set on fire.
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That is not as old as Notre Dame, obviously, but it's a very old church.
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Last month, at the church of Saint-Nicolas in Oui, France, the statue of the Virgin Mary was smashed.
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In February, the altar cloth was burned and crosses and statues of saints were smashed at Saint-Alain Cathedral.
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In France, at the church of Notre Dame des Enfants, that was looted.
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A cross at that church was smeared with human excrement.
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Obviously, something is going on at these churches.
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Something is causing people to set churches on fire and desecrate sacraments and statues and altars.
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No, no, no, no, la, la, la, la, la, we can't possibly discuss that.
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Also, why would someone raise the possibility that this was arson or terror?
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The Cathedral of Notre Dame burned down on the first day of Holy Week.
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Holy Week is what begins the time as you lead into Good Friday and to Easter Sunday.
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And on that Monday, the Cathedral of Notre Dame burns down.
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So I don't think it's so awful that people are raising questions.
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But, as that gentleman said before Shepard Smith cut him off, it's not politically correct to raise that question.
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Now, the authorities are saying it doesn't seem as though it was arson.
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Now, on the bright side, there is a silver lining here.
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A lot of relics, a lot of artwork was saved from within the cathedral.
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I mean, there were priceless artifacts in Notre Dame.
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The crown of thorns that was placed on Christ's head was in Notre Dame.
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And Father Jean-Marc Fournier, who's the chaplain of the Paris Fire Brigade,
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he ran into the burning cathedral to save that relic, to save the crown of thorns,
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There is another relic, a nail from the true cross, the cross on which Christ was crucified.
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Unfortunately, part of the crown of thorns, a piece of it, was stored in the spire.
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That is believed to have been destroyed when that spire burned down.
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And although the facade remains apparently structurally intact,
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The frame of that roof, which dates back to the 12th century.
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800-year-old roof, over 800 years old, destroyed.
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This oak that dates back upwards of 1,000 years, destroyed.
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The leader of France, he says they will rebuild.
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Other conservatives, other Christians, other people in France have called for it to be rebuilt.
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It would be wonderful to be able to rebuild Notre Dame.
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First of all, any attempt to rebuild it will take decades.
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We don't want to acknowledge this in our culture,
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You break your computer, oh, you can replace that.
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One, we don't really even know how that roof was built.
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There is so much technical knowledge that has been lost over the centuries.
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because we think we're modern and we know everything,
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It took such a strength of the Catholic Church.
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It took such a unity between the Church and the state to build Notre Dame.
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Western Christendom is such a shadow of its former self, you can't rebuild Notre Dame.
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This burning is in many ways a symbol of the decay of the faith throughout Europe.
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Hilaire Belloc, the writer, once said a famous line, got him in trouble.
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To listen to people talk about Notre Dame yesterday,
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it was as though they were talking about a museum.
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It was as though they were talking like Ilhan Omar.
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Oh, no, it's such a loss of art and architecture.
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Yes, but the art and architecture mean something.
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We'll get to that much harder question in a second.
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The cathedral itself is a relic of a bygone age
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Actually, all of those relics inside the cathedral,
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Those are kind of fun little historical oddities.
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Obviously, it's not a nail from the true cross.
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Obviously, it was just gullible, foolish people
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But nevertheless, they're historical curiosities.
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If it's because you want to look at the facades of Notre Dame,
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If you build it because you believe that it's real,
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one of the greatest opportunities for the West,
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when great forces are on the move in the world,
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Moral discourse will dominate the 2020 election.
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Hopefully no one tries to throw chemicals on me
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The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Rebecca Dobkowitz
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The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production.
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And Nancy Pelosi struggles with the fresh faces.