Easter services at Paris’s famed Notre Dame Cathedral are being moved this year to a nearby church after a devastating fire ravaged the centuries-old landmark earlier this week.
A French religious publication first reported Tuesday that Easter services would be held at the nearby Church of St Eustache, itself a historic building constructed between 1532 and 1632.
{mosads}Michel Aupetit, the archbishop of Paris, told the French publication Le Figaro that the fire had rekindled the faith of many Parisians “who have not prayed for a long time.”
The church is “more than a pile of stones,” he continued. “The cathedral has partially fallen down, the cathedral will revive itself, it will recover.”
“We are going to rebuild the cathedral. The world’s excitement, the extraordinary generosity caused by the fire that partially destroyed it, will allow us to consider its recovery, we could speak in these Easter times of certain resurrection,” Aupetit said.
A French official told The Associated Press on Thursday that an electrical short circuit likely sparked the fire. French government and church officials have also urged the public not to believe conspiracy theories about the fire.
An official with another church in the area that was burned in a fire last month, St. Suplice, told Le Parisien that conspiracy theories about culprits behind the Notre Dame fire were counterproductive.
“Do not believe in conspiracy theories and trying to find a culprit at all costs,” Jean-Loup Lacroix told the newspaper.