Notre-Dame de Paris. Father Guillaume Normand wishes to “put pilgrimage back in the spotlight” in the new liturgical journey

You are responsible for organizing the liturgy in the cathedral. Are there going to be any changes?

Obviously a little because, five years after the fire, almost all of us are new to our positions, including our archbishop and our rector! Including the singers! So we cannot compare to what was done before. We need to tame spaces and volumes. And then the conditions for receiving the public will change, the number of visitors will increase… We have to adapt. However, it will not be a revolution, because the liturgy is not a creation that we would have imagined. It exists, we have received it and we are only implementing it, according to a well-established ritual.

What are you going to change?

We wish to bring back the spotlight on the pilgrimage inside Notre-Dame, to pray before the Crown of Thorns and the Virgin at the Pillar. This will result in a new route in the cathedral (see plan below), on which Father Olivier Scache is working, which will be explained by signage, a pilgrim’s booklet and an application that can be downloaded.

Masses will resume at a rate of three per day during the week and four on Sunday. We would like to add, after the 6 p.m. Mass, an adoration to the Blessed Sacrament, in the choir. Groups of visitors will not enter during services but independent visitors will be able to continue to circulate around the nave which will welcome the faithful.

How do you envisage the reopening ceremonies?

I went to see in the ceremonials of the bishops – a sort of liturgical guide – how a “waking up” of the organ, an opening of the doors… is generally practiced so that we can draw inspiration from it. We must think about what participation we will ask from the assemblies which will be different depending on the ceremonies of the octave of December 7: officials, clergy of Paris, companions and firefighters, religious communities… What is unheard of is to participate, all together in a true page of History before the eyes of the whole world.