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France races to reopen Notre-Dame cathedral by December 2024It has been almost five years since a fire started at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.#notredame pic.twitter.com/FgU3uAr3PJ— cristina mendez casacuberta (@ccasacub) April 15, 2019There were screams from onlookers when the spire fell over and crashed through the burning roof of the cathedral.La flèche de #NotreDame, en flammes, s'effondre https://t.co/1zqzJ3gzCu pic.twitter.com/Tw7dD8U6Y3— Paris Match (@ParisMatch) April 15, 2019Since then hundreds of millions of dollars have been donated to repair the damage and crews have been at work rebuilding the roof using some of the same techniques used by the original builders, i.e. they are...

The Catholic Church has been an enduring symbol of Nicaragua’s resistance to the regime of President Daniel Ortega since 2018. Consequently, the institution’s peaceful defiance has firmly placed church leaders and the faithful in Ortega’s crosshairs. Tensions escalated between the Catholic Church and Ortega on March 18, when the Vatican closed its embassy in Managua. Earlier that week, Ortega had lashed out at Pope Francis, who compared the president’s administration to a Nazi dictatorship during an interview with Argentine news organization Infobae. Ortega denounced Catholic leaders sympathetic to the opposition as “terrorists” and called the Catholic Church a “mafia.” The...

The Notre Dame Cathedral spire construction site in Val de Briey, eastern France. Four years into the devastating fire, Notre Dame Cathedral will get the spire back by the end of 2023. But to reopen the beloved symbol of France by Dec. 8, 2024, three conditions need to be met. (OSV News photo/David Bordes, Etablissement public Rebatir Notre Dame de Paris) (OSV News) — Notre Dame Cathedral will get its spire back by the end of 2023, more than four years after it was devastated by a fire. But to reopen the beloved symbol of France by Dec. 8, 2024,...

Surveillance footage provided to police by the church showed Reynolds, 35, enter the church and knock over a potted plant. She then approached a large statue of Jesus, ripped it off the wall and smashed it on the ground, according to court documents. She can then be seen leaving the church in the video. Police detained Reynolds after she tried to run away and said she was unable to answer basic questions. Police estimate the statue could cost up to $11,500 to repair or replace, according to KVRR. Reynolds was charged with criminal mischief, driving under the influence and providing...

lection printers should be transparent and non-biased. Is this the case? Guest post by Chris Gleason The ballots in Maricopa County were printed by Runbeck Election Services in Phoenix, Arizona, but many questions remain about these particular ballots. Where did thousands of mail-in ballots in pristine condition in Fulton County, Georgia suddenly come from during the 2020 presidential election? They were printed by Runbeck Election Services in Phoenix, Arizona, but there is something very suspicious about these particular ballots. Who filed a U.S. Patent Application for a computer system for “on-screen ballot duplication” to be used for “generating a revised...

On Monday morning at around 7.30 a.m. the woman was caught on camera by appalled locals posing for pictures with just a red strip of material covering her front, in front of the cathedral doors, which were cast in 1067 in the-then Constantinople, and beneath a mosaic of St. Andrew, whose relics are said to be housed inside. The location of the shoot was particularly hurtful to members of the community, said art historian and writer Laura Thayer, who who lives in Amalfi "The Duomo is a place of worship and a place very close to the hearts of the...

Former U.S. President Donald Trump will be invited to a special memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II attended by the Queen’s Colour Squadron in America’s Washington National Cathedral. President Trump has not been invited to the Queen’s state funeral in Westminster Abbey and nor have Barack Obama, George Bush, Bill Clinton, or Jimmy Carter, such is the demand among the sitting political leaders, but the living former presidents will all be invited to an invitation-only service at the “spiritual home” of Anglicanism in America organised in partnership with the British Embassy, reports The Times of London.

All throughout last week, some five or six Coptic churches in Egypt have “caught fire”— ... the Church of Abu Seifein (named after Saint Mercurius of Caesarea, who is revered by the Copts). At least 41 Christians — 18 of whom were children — were either burned alive, killed by asphyxiation, or ... Considering that Muslims have torched or bombed hundreds of Coptic churches over the decades in Egypt — and often when churches are packed — it is, of course, difficult to resist that explanation. Moreover, this last week was the “anniversary” of when Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers torched 62...

The Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine-era religious building in Istanbul, Turkey, was reportedly damaged last week when heavy cleaning equipment cracked the marble floors. It is just the latest incident in recent years that has seen the site damaged. The Hagia Sophia, constructed by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I between 532 and 537, served as the largest Christian cathedral in the world until Constantinople was taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. It was then turned into a mosque and subsequently into a museum by Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1935. Considered one of the most important religious...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A woman sought for causing “significant damage” to a Denver cathedral was arrested in Portland days after Denver officials said she might be in the Rose City. Madeline Ann Cramer allegedly damaged the Cathedral Basilica in Denver on October 10, authorities said. Though authorities don’t know where she is, investigators said they believe she may be in the Portland area. On Thursday, police said Cramer was arrested on SE Division around 121st after tips from the public led them to her. KDVR in Denver, a sister station with KOIN, reported the vandalism included messages of symbols...

Sen. Bob Dole’s casket will lie in state in the US Capitol on Thursday as congressional leaders honor the former Republican presidential candidate and World War II veteran who served in Congress for 36 years. Dole will then have a state funeral on Friday at the Washington National Cathedral, a senior congressional source told The Post on Monday. Dole passed away Sunday at the age of 98. On Saturday, his body will be transported to his home state of Kansas. Dole served four terms in the House and more than four terms in the Senate. He won the Republican nomination...

Colin Powell, the retired four-star general who served as the nation’s first black secretary of state and devoted decades of his life to public service, is being laid to rest Friday during a private funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. The service began at noon local time and is hosting President Biden and first lady Jill Biden in addition to two former presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and their wives, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush. Former President Donald Trump is not expected to attend.

A Rwandan immigrant walked into French police station on Monday and said he had murdered the Catholic priest giving him shelter while he awaited possible trial over a fire at a cathedral last year... "So in France you can be an illegal immigrant, torch Nantes cathedral, never be expelled and reoffend by murdering a priest. What's happening in our country is unprecedented: the total failure of the state," Marine Le Pen France's immigration authorities handed the Rwandan national an expulsion order in 2019, but he remained in the country. Senator Bruno Retailleau, who represents the Vendee region, identified the victim...

Hagia Sophia’s near-millennium as a cathedral, and the catastrophic events that led to its becoming a mosque – events that took place on this day in 1453, a day some Greek Orthodox Christians referred to as “the last day of the world.” ... May 29, 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II finally broke through Constantinople’s defenses after a long siege, marking the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire. The conquerors were extraordinarily brutal... the Muslim soldiers “slew everyone that they met in the streets, men, women, and children without discrimination....

NEW YORK -- A man was shot by police after shots rang out at the end of a Christmas choral concert on the steps of a Manhattan cathedral Sunday afternoon. It’s unclear if the gunman was killed and police said there's no indication anyone but the gunman was shot. The shooting happened just before 4 p.m. at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and seat of its bishop. The 45-minute concert had just concluded and people were starting to walk away when a series of shots was heard, sending...

CNA Staff, Sep 23, 2020 / 12:00 am MT (CNA).- After fire toppled the iconic spire and destroyed the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France in April 2009, heated debates ensued about whether the reconstruction should use the church’s original design, or use a more modern design and technique. Some proposed futuristic ideas included a rooftop swimming pool and a greenhouse atop the 850-year-old cathedral. Last year, the French Senate passed a bill mandating that Notre-Dame be rebuilt as it was before the fire, with lumber and medieval carpentry techniques, which were highlighted in a public demonstration...

Rome Newsroom, Jul 26, 2020 / 04:00 am MT (CNA).- A church volunteer has admitted to starting the fire at Nantes Cathedral and was charged with arson on Saturday. The 39-year-old Rwandan refugee -- who had been detained and released by the police immediately following the July 18 fire at the Gothic cathedral -- was arrested again and indicted July 25 on “charges of destruction and damage by fire,” according to the Nantes public prosecutor. The prosecutor Pierre Sennes said in a statement that the volunteer had confessed to the examining magistrate on July 25 to lighting three fires in...

The city's prosecutor Pierre Sennes said: "We've observed this morning that the fire started in three spots. This observation leads us to open an investigation for arson, an investigation to regional judicial police. "The next phase will be working into the investigation, consultations, we will take a lot of statements. We will also verify the technical installations, the fire prevention installations, and again, we are waiting for this expert who could give us interesting elements." Fire Chief Laurent Ferlay told a press briefing in front of the cathedral that the blaze was not as big as the one that engulfed...

Turkey's President Erdogan has formally converted the former Hagia Sophia cathedral into a mosque to drum up support for his Islamic-rooted party... The move came hours after Turkey's highest administrative court issued a landmark ruling that unanimously annulled the 1934 cabinet decision to renovate the site into a museum. It meant the green light was given for Erdogan to restore the UNESCO World Heritage site's previous status as a mosque, reopening it to Muslim worship. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, is scheduled to deliver an address to the nation later today and has frequently used the Hagia Sophia issue... Nationalist and...

Agia Sophia belongs to Turkey, and it can do with it as it pleases without Greece’s permission, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized yesterday in the latest ongoing spat between Turkey and Greece over the fate of the iconic cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-museum. “Now they’re talking about Agia Sophia,” Erdogan said in response to Greece’s reaction to his own statements about reconverting Agia Sophia into a mosque. “They say, ‘You won’t turn it into a mosque.’ Are you from the Turkish administration?” he asked, reports Romfea. Turkey does not need to ask permission from Greece to change the status of the world-famous building,...