“Death Comes for the Cathedrals”: Proust's Masterful Essay Now Published as a Deluxe Hardcover

In keeping with recent news about Notre Dame Cathedral, it's worth mentioning a beautiful new title just released by the Catholic publisher Wiseblood Books: Death Comes for the Cathedrals.

The heart of this book is a translation of Marcel Proust's influential 1904 essay in Le Figaro that brilliantly argued, from a cultural and philosophical viewpoint, against the total secularization of churches in France, and led to less extreme measures being taken by the French anticlerical government. This eloquent translation by John Pepino made its first appearance here at Rorate Caeli on January 13, 2015.

“A New Threat Looms over Notre Dame de Paris: What the Fire Spared, the Diocese Wants to Destroy”: Manifesto Signed by 105 French Cultural Figures

The following manifesto appeared at La Tribune de l'Art and in the web and print editions of Le Figaro on December 7, in response to revelations that the archdiocese of Paris was pushing for a totally modernized, multi-media, Disney-like renovation of the interior of Notre Dame Cathedral.

On April 15, 2019, the world discovered, stunned and shocked, images of Notre-Dame on fire. While the rubble was still smoking, millions of people, of all nationalities, spontaneously mobilized to collect the money needed to restore the monument. Nearly one billion euros were raised. These donations were declarations of love for Notre-Dame Cathedral. They testified to our confidence in our ability to revive this sublime artistic and spiritual patrimony.

Guest Op-Ed: Cupich should embrace Catholic heritage, forgo false humility

By Anatole Upart

University of Chicago Art History Doctoral student

Special for Rorate Caeli

When a leader of a polity assumes the office, the power of the office often comes in a specific architectural form: a residence, headquarters or a palace. Whether that leader personally dislikes old palaces is not important. What is important is that he or she would transition into the role, previously occupied by someone else.

The last thing the new president, king, pope can do is to refuse the symbolic trappings of the office and impose his own personal preferences. That is why Chicago's new Catholic archbishop, Blase Cupich, should move into the official residence, not into the rectory of the Holy Name Cathedral as he recently indicated. It signals the beginning of his new job in the same way the relocation to the White House starts the presidency and the move into Vatican Apartments mark the Papacy.