By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

During all the Easter service programs last week, Grand Rapids Bishop David Walkowiak took a few moments to look up and reflect on the spires of the Cathedral of St. Andrews.

“I was just so thankful that in the calm, I was able to stop and look up at the magnificence and be able to enjoy the grandeur in the light,” Walkowiak said during a phone interview.

It was a poignant moment in that only 24 hours before the famous spire of Notre Dame had come down during a catastrophic fire on April 15. 

“The damage is not as extensive,” Walkowiak said of the Notre Dame fire. The crown of thorns was recovered, the altar appeared to be in relatively in good condition and Notre Dame’s famed bell towers and stained glass windows had little or no damage. Still there is a loss.

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“Losing something is a traumatic experience,” Walkowiak said. “You go there everyday to pray. It is something that is a part of you, and it is not just the French, but the world. There is resilience and in the face of tragedy there is hope.”

Catastrophic blaze at Notre Dame has Kentwood residents remember the fire at St. Mary Magdalen Parish

As an example of that hope, Walkowiak turns back to the Cathedral of St. Andrews which burned to the ground in 1901 after being struck by lightning.

“According to the accounts, they saw the lightning strike and sent a boy up to the roof to see if it was on fire,” Walkowiak said. “He came down and said there was no fire, but it probably was burning under the roof, where he could not see it.”

There was plenty of time for the parishioners to remove many of the items and statutes from the cathedral before it burned, he said. 

“When they told founding Bishop Henry Richter of the fire, he asked if the blessed sacraments were safe and when told they were, he said ‘Then God’s will be done,’” Walkowiak said.

The cathedral was rebuilt and in its ceiling are some of the massive wooden beams that were used in the original building. 

Notre Dame too will be rebuilt, Walkowiak said, adding he hopes within his lifetime so he may have the chance to see it. 

“They say five years, but the architect experts are saying 10 to 15 years,” he said. “We all know that things come up so it could take 20 or longer.”

Walkowiak said the fire also serves as a reminder that there is no lasting home here on earth.

“Anything that is created we eventually will have to realize that we will be separated from it,” Walkowiak said.

But for now, in Grand Rapids, area residents can enjoy the spires of the Cathedral of St. Andrews as those who live and visit France can still marvel at the beauty of Notre Dame, even if that is from a distance.

Byron Center resident Liz Nuyen-Blank, who visited Notre Dame as part of an wedding anniversary trip and took pictures of the building a few days before the fire, stopped by the site as she headed home. She said the roads to Notre Dame were blocked and people could only view the site from a distance. (See below for more pictures from Nuyen-Blank.)

There are a number of ways to donate to the Notre Dame restoration project. Before donating, making sure to check out the organization. There is the Friends of Notre Dame, established by the Arch Bishop of Paris and the Diocese of Paris; the Notre Dame Fire Restoration Fund, hosted by the French Heritage Society; and Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in North America, also has a fundraiser.

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