Notre-Dame
Saying What Dare Not Be Said
Recorded in early 2023, 'Notre-Dame' is one of the ten tracks slated for release on Morrissey's Without Music The World Dies studio album (which, upon its release, will be his 15th studio album, assuming that it is preceded by the release of Bonfire of Teenagers). Morrissey premiered the song in concert at Binyamina-Giv'at Ada, Israel on July 2, 2023 (and went on to perform it seven more times in the course of his 2023 tour). The song's debut performance saw the normally secular Morrissey reveal a hidden rosary1 that was strung around his neck, holding up the crucifix to the audience while singing the lines “Notre-Dame, we know who tried to kill you. Notre-Dame, we will not be silent. Before investigation, they said, this is not terrorism. They said there is nothing to see here.”
At the extreme risk of stating the obvious, the song's title references the medieval Catholic cathedral in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France, the formal name of which is Notre-Dame de Paris (translated to English, "Our Lady of Paris"). The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.
Construction of the cathedral began in 1163 and was largely completed by 1260. On April 15, 2019, while in the midst of a major renovation and restoration, Notre-Dame's roof caught fire and burned for 15 hours. The cathedral sustained serious damage. The flèche (the timber spire) was destroyed, as was most of the lead-covered wooden roof above the stone vaulted ceiling. Nearly five years after the fact, a definitive cause of the blaze has not yet been established, although it has been ruled as "accidental", and possibly linked to the restoration work.
Edouard de Lamaze, president of the Paris based Observatoire du patrimoine religieux (translated to 'Observatory of Religious Heritage') stated in a 2021 interview that in France, one religious building disappears every two weeks (by demolition, transformation, destruction by fire, or collapse), with a staggering two-thirds of fires in religious buildings being due to arson.
In prior years, the destruction of religious buildings in France by arson was decidedly rare. In recent years it is a regular occurrence, and doesn't even take into account rising incidents involving physical attacks upon Catholic clergy (including the murder of a French priest in July 20162 while he was conducting Mass in a Catholic church). The emergence of these types of incidents is a controversial issue. One may draw their own conclusions.
If his 2009 song 'I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris' is any indication, Morrissey has a deep affection for the "City of Lights''. So it should come as no surprise that the Notre-Dame fire has garnered Morrissey's attention.
The lyrics of 'Notre Dame'3 do the unspeakable - they question the official narrative that the cathedral fire was purely accidental - which is an action that shall not be brooked in the minds of certain segments of western society. It would not be unrealistic to presume that Morrissey is of the opinion that the Notre-Dame fire was not the result of an accident, and that the official (state-sanctioned) narrative is merely a sanitized - and politically convenient - version of the event. Once again, one may draw their own conclusions, but then not everyone has their work-product held in perpetual limbo in order to both punish and silence a voice that asks inconvenient questions, and that expresses opinions that do not always conform to the woke mob's nebulous dogma.
One would be remiss to not mention that proponents of violent jihad specifically target places of worship as it is their belief that Islam is the only religion and that it must be adopted by the followers of other faiths. None other than the BBC has said as much.4 While this doesn’t prove anything insofar as evidence of what occurred on April 15, 2019 in Paris, it cannot be ignored either.
Morrissey's premier performance of 'Notre-Dame' is here:
A rosary consists of a string of beads, a medal, and a cross. A rosary is used in prayer.
Jacques Hamel (1930 – July 2016) was a French Catholic priest who was murdered during the 2016 Normandy church attack (July 26th) by two Muslim men pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant while father Hamel celebrated Mass in his church.
Notre-Dame, we know who tried to kill you
Notre-Dame, we know who tried to kill you
Notre-Dame, we will not be silent
Notre-Dame, we will not be silent
Before investigations
They said, 'This is not terrorism!'
Notre-Dame, we will not be silent
Notre-Dame, we will not be silent
Before investigations
They said, 'There's nothing to see here!'
Notre-Dame, a cold hand just touched me
Notre-Dame, a cold hand just touched me
Notre-Dame, we will not be silent
Notre-Dame, we will not be silent
Before investigations
They said, 'This is not terrorism!'
Notre-Dame, a cold hand just touched me
Notre-Dame, a cold hand just touched me
BBC News, January 20, 2016
See https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35360415#:~:text=The%20militants%20believe%20that%20Islam,choose%20between%20conversion%20and%20execution.
Thank you, Thomas for this thoughtful piece. Please forgive me for more gentle bludgeoning, by pointing out that rosary beads and Morrissey have frequently been on very intimate terms for many years.