No, the French government owns the building, not the Catholic church. When France went "secular" in 1905, they passed a law that said any churches built before that period are public property of the state. In this case the Catholic Church is simply the beneficiary of that arrangement and they pay for operations but they do not own the building. It sounds strange to us Americans, that a country would become "secular" and yet own churches, but before that period, the Catholic Church was the official religion of France and the country of France was directly subsidizing the Vatican. This move was to secularize the nation, and ended the official designation of their religion and the subsidies as well. But with a structure like the Cathedral of Notre Dame, they had to have some sort of compromise since the state was subsidizing it and funding it's restoration for decades, centuries even, they wanted some kind of ownership rights for all that. The Notre Dame Cathedral was really the reason they made that ruling, as 50 years before they went "secular" is when the French government spend like 20 years and who knows how much money to restore it, they weren't about to just give up ownership- 1905 French Law on the Separation of the Churches and The State https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_French_law_on_the_Separation_of_the_Churches_and_the_State
Great find. I stand corrected. It's an interesting way to go from Catholic as the State religion to a state owned Catholic Church. I'm not sure that's Kosher? Is there a rabbi in the house?
So this wasn't a feasible option to remedy the fire? Thanks for the online message board etiquette reminder. Duly noted
