L'incendie de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

Hello, my friends. You know, like everyone else, I was very shocked by the tragic fire at Notre Dame Cathedral. I didn't actually see the fire. I saw a few photos. I didn't want to see the images, except for a few seconds that I saw on TV by accident. I was at the doctor's office. They had a screen. But it's true that it's not the kind of image that I like to watch. And even though I'm not French, I'm not integrated into France. I don't need a letter. It's still something about a building that belongs, let's say, to the collective heritage of humanity. So everyone somewhere feels or should feel like a shareholder in this kind of building. You know, when the Banyan Buddhas were destroyed, I was also sad. Right. There's no need. I'm saying this in response to some messages that I've seen. There are people who are sometimes angry with France and can't seem to express their solidarity with what's happening, even though it's something that affects all of humanity. I've received messages from French friends, some of whom seem depressed and. And that's why I thought I had to make this video. You know, I'll tell you something. I'll try to be positive. You know, I visited the Queen's Castle, the largest castle in the world that's still in operation today, Windsor Castle. I've visited this castle several times. You actually need several visits to explore all of its secrets. You know, it burned down in the 90s. There was a fire, and a huge wing burned down. A large part of this castle burned down completely.

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Notre Dame style. If you visit today, if they don't tell you that it burned down one day, you wouldn't know.

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It requires absolutely extraordinary restoration work. There are a few details that can give you information. For example, you'll see that some of the canvases are patched around the edges. There's a bit of fabric that comes along the edges and then goes from the canvas, the painted part, onto the wood. Why? Because on the day of the fire, the night of the fire, there were. There were people who, to save what they could from the fire, they took knives or knives. They cut the canvases quickly, they rolled them up and they threw them out the windows. Of course, that's the only way to save them. And then they were restored. Sometimes this restoration work is visible, but it's just details. If you're not aware of this, you won't know. St. Paul's Cathedral in London, a good part of London and the whole area around it burned down. But that was a long time ago, in the 1600s. I think it was 1666. The great fire of London. The Great Fire of Lander. You can look that up, too. In fact, what I want to tell you, Notre Dame is not a council estate. It's not a building that was built in the 80s to be blown up today. You see a building that has very little life, that's three decades old. It's nothing at all. You know, it's three minutes in a man's life. He doesn't see anything at all. You know, he'll see the construction of the people who live there, the chaos, and then one day, it will be destroyed. Okay, Notre Dame is not that kind of building. These are buildings that have lived for centuries, sometimes millennia. And as time goes by, sometimes a roof burns, sometimes there's a war, sometimes there's a bombing. How many castles, how many cathedrals were gutted by the bombings of the Second World War? They were restored. They were repaired. What do you want? It's the normal life that goes on in a building that has lasted for centuries. Today it burned down. In a few years, it will be restored. And then. Sorry, one day we'll talk about the fire of 2019.

But.

We'll talk about it. But the little schoolchildren who visited that place, if no one tells them about the fire of 2019, they won't even notice. They won't even know it existed, because that's normal. That's the life of this building.

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That's what I'm trying to tell you, actually. And then for Catholics who sometimes feel. I've seen some messages, it seems as if people were almost shaken in their faith or touched in their deepest faith. And I can understand that. But I want to tell you one thing. I want to tell you one thing. I say this with great respect for this building that I love very much.

Ah.

And it's something that I serve a lot for Muslims, but that I also serve for Christians, that I can serve for Jews, that I can serve for everyone of all religions combined. God, okay, does not live in buildings built by the hands of man.

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So God is not inside. I'll even tell you something. We are more likely to find him outside than inside religious buildings. So I understand that these religious buildings correspond to sacred ground. It was consecrated not because God is in it, but because of the faith of the people who built it, because of the faith of the people who came. Out of their sincerity, they came to pray. They came to leave vows, messages. And they had moments of communion with each other and with the spirit. So that's what makes this place so sacred.

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But it's not because God is in it either. There's something. There's something extraordinary about the symbolism. It's true that there's a very strong symbolism in seeing this cathedral burn. But at the same time, if you notice, there's a very strong message being sent. For once we're talking about France's Christian roots. The entire world, all the newspapers in the world have published their front pages about this cathedral burning. And there are 8 billion human beings today. And I'm not talking about the people living in the Amazonian hell. There are 8 billion human beings today who are waking up to see the Christian roots of France before their eyes. So maybe that's the message too. Maybe that's the goal of the sacrifice. Because somewhere there is a way, of the cross, there is a sacrifice. And at the end of the sacrifice, what is there? There is a message, There is a strong message that has been conveyed. And that message, there it is, it has arrived. It has been understood by everyone. We are in a France that did not know where it was going, that did not know who it was, that doubted its roots. For a few years, we debated French roots, a bit like debating a country that gained its independence in 1975. Do you know what I mean? A country with 2,000 years of history documented in some parts in the smallest detail. Doubt, doubt these roots until it entered a phase of revisionism. Recently, in the last 20 or 30 years, it began to rewrite its history.

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So it's true that perhaps this fire was needed to awaken this memory. This message is still getting through, and I think the message is extremely powerful. And then. And then why am I saying all this? Because I still want to. Because the fire happened there. We can't go back. It's not possible to go back. But what we can do is try to find something to bounce back from there, because we can't change it, but we can try to see it from an angle that ultimately makes this tragedy, perhaps humanizes it a little. That's what I'm trying to tell you. On the other hand, I was very saddened by the hate messages that came from a certain number of people who are in France. I'm not going to offend my French friends by saying that these people are French. These are people who live in France. I would even say on the back of France. And sometimes they hate France a bit like that. Beggar who sometimes. And people who pass by and spend a penny on them.

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It's these feelings of inferiority compared to a country that feeds them, huh? It's a fact that sometimes this country itself, I must say that sometimes it even paid its parents to have them. And no, it's true. They are born and they hate this country that gave birth to them, that facilitated their birth. I don't know what it is, but in any case, I've never seen such hatred. I've never seen it. It's terrible. It's very specific to France. Honestly, I've spoken to Muslims from Algeria, Morocco. By the way, I am in constant communication with lots of people. And I can tell you that even extremely practicing Muslims in Algeria are shocked by what is happening, okay? I have seen messages of solidarity sent by Muslims outside of France. What I see in France, I see this completely rotten youth who no longer have any values. There was a girl who posted, oh, yes. I don't feel integrated into France. I am completely indifferent to this cathedral that is burning. But, my dear, you don't need to be integrated into France. You need to be integrated into humanity, okay? I'm not French. I am not integrated into France, okay? And when you are integrated into humanity, when you feel like you belong to this world, to these people who live, no matter their color, no matter their race, no matter their. I don't know what you are touched by what happened to them. I would have been moved by a similar building with similar symbolism that had burned down in Japan, that had burned down in the United States, okay? Because we feel like we belong to the human race, after all, beyond what we distinguish, beyond languages, we. Beyond countries, beyond the wars of the past that some people dwell on and perhaps should turn the page. In any case, it's true that it shocked me a lot. But ultimately, in France, we are in a country where each year, how many people die in asymmetrical violence? How many people die each year for a glance, for a cigarette? How many people die for nothing, receive completely senseless blows, they end up disabled for life or death or whatever. I mean, someone has to do it, right? Someone has to do it. We can see that they do it. We can see where we get this violence, this meanness, this gratuitousness. And I blame France for cultivating this, because no country should let this kind of thing happen. A country should not bury its head in the sand, take refuge in cowardice, take refuge in relativism, and allow this kind of. I'm not using the word. I'M thinking of to corrupt, to corrupt institutions, to corrupt entire neighborhoods, to corrupt cities. And then continue to say, come on, a plan, a suburban plan. More money, more stuff, Less justice, more laxity. We turn a blind eye. This headlong rush is not possible. And I hope that the fire at this cathedral has perhaps awakened consciences, because one day it will go very far. One day. It wasn't yesterday I saw that there's no social divide in France. There is a national divide. For me, that means it's not a social divide. Ah, a social divide. Let me give you an example. I lived in Switzerland, the Regram. It's the. It's the Swiss ohm. The German speaking Switzerland that has a kind of gap. Yes, there is a fracture. All that we can talk about it, but here we're not talking about that. The German speaking Swiss, uh, wouldn't be, uh. Wouldn't be happy if there was a fire, I don't know, in a cathedral in Geneva, for example. Do you see what I mean? Here we are, we are in a. We are in a state of enmity, okay, between enemy peoples who live on this land that we call France. It's terrible. There is not one France, there are several today. And it's no longer a social fracture that is causing it. It's a latent civil war. Literally. There is a hatred that I have seen expressed. And despite knowing that this hatred existed, despite observing this hatred for years, I am still. I may still have a bit of naivety. Deep down, I am still a bit shocked when I see it, even though I know it is there.

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In any case, we are going to work on it, okay? What does this hatred offer us? Right? What does hatred offer us? It offers us the challenge of love. It offers us a new challenge. That's all. It tells us that there is work to be done. So we must continue to talk. We must continue to stand in line. We must work. Because until one day, if there is ever a fire or a national tragedy, we see an entire country united. We see an entire country in meditation. When we see in a country that despite the differences, despite the ones or the others, still identifies at least a little with this humanity, identifies at least a little with this land that most often gave birth to them. And then. Yeah, it's. It's. I wasn't going to say it's hopeless, but. No, it's not hopeless. Nothing is hopeless. But there is work to be done. Good night, my friends. It's getting late. Night has fallen. I'm tired. The lights are going out. This video should be the last thing I do before going to sleep.