Note to all my readers: I've wrestled with whether or not to publish this post. Then an extraordinary thing happened: On Sunday July 31st, in churches all across France -- including the Cathedral of Notre Dame de l'Assomption in Clermont-Ferrand, just up the hill from the subject of this post -- Muslims joined with Christian congregations to demonstrate solidarity and to express their rejection of terrorists.
As one imam of a mosque in Vichy explained, "By our presence, we want to show that we are wholeheartedly with Catholics but also with Humanity, no matter what their faith [ I'm angry. To be Muslim is not uniquely to say a prayer, it's a behavior, a respect. We have to act. If we just let them do this, we're complicit in their actions. The horror of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray is not directly attributable to what happened in C.
My hope is that this understanding -- and the interfaith dialogue that started in the wake of this attack -- can be part of the long process of healing and finding solutions. As all of us who love France know, it's urgent for this process to go forward now! For me, one of the best places to be on days like this is inside the ancient basilica of Notre Dame du Port.
I leave my office, already hot as a car in a Texas parking lot by lunchtime, and labor up the sharp little street from Place des Carmes to spend an hour in the cool dark interior of this medieval wonder.
Rebuilt in its current form beginning in C. The interior has been repainted n a light yellow wash. Some of the brightly-painted chapels that are also characteristic of Romanesque churches remain as they were before, and the rich stained glass casts abstract patterns on the stone floors. What was life like for them during the week? What preoccupied them when they came through these doors? Were they celebrating a good harvest, or had an entire crop for the season been destroyed by a hail storm?
