Prince William to join Donald Trump at Notre-Dame reopening
The Prince of Wales is to join Donald Trump at the official reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on Saturday, Kensington Palace has announced.
Prince William accepted an invitation from Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to attend the ceremony five years after the cathedral was wrecked by fire.
He will join Mr Trump, the US president-elect, dozens of world leaders and more than 1,500 guests for the service, which will be led by Laurent Ulrich, the Catholic archbishop of Paris.
The Prince, 42, is travelling at the request of the Government, the palace said.
It is understood that the Prince’s attendance was arranged at the last minute. Mr Trump announced that he would be travelling to France for the ceremony on Monday evening.
He last met Mr Trump in 2019, when the then-president made a state visit to the UK, joining senior royals for a traditional white-tie state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Sir Keir Starmer has not met Mr Trump since the Republican’s election victory. The Prime Minister has insisted that he is looking forward to working with Mr Trump, despite highly critical comments about the president-elect made in the past by senior Labour figures threatening to strain relations.
Mr Trump was serving his first term when the Notre Dame fire broke out on April 15 2019. The fire started in the attic, destroying the oak roof beams and supporting lead roof.
On Monday, he announced that he would be attending Saturday’s service, writing on the Truth Social network: “President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”
The service will begin with a ceremonial reopening of the cathedral’s great doors and the playing of its organ. The celebration of the first Mass will come on Sunday.
Archbishop Ulrich will reopen the doors by tapping them with his crozier, or bishop’s staff, created by designer Sylvain Dubuisson using pieces of wood – bearing visible black traces of the blaze - that fell from the cathedral roof during the inferno.
In response to the archbishop’s door knocks, the choir will erupt into song. That back-and-forth will happen three times before the doors open so guests can head inside past sculptures of biblical figures.
Ulrich will then “reawaken” the cathedral organ, whose 8,000 pipes were damaged by the toxic dust released as the lead roofing burnt. He will address it directly with a series of eight incantations, starting with “Awaken, organ, sacred instrument: Sing the praise of God.”
The painstaking re-tuning of the organ took about six months, with tuners working throughout the night so they could tweak the notes with no other noise present.
Sunday will mark the cathedral’s inaugural mass, with special rites to consecrate the main altar. Tickets for the first week of masses were snapped up in 25 minutes, the rector has said.
The King and Queen visited Notre-Dame during their state visit to France last September. Accompanied by Mr Macron and his wife Brigitte, they met firefighters who worked to halt the fire as well as stonemasons working to repair statues and gargoyles.
The King joked with the firefighters that they were working “as quickly as possible” to meet Mr Macron’s five-year deadline for the reconstruction, which has been met.
When the French president committed to rebuilding the cathedral, more than €800 million was privately pledged for reconstruction and renovation works within 24 hours of a global appeal.
