When we first heard the news, it wrenched at our hearts. We all felt we were losing something infinitely precious and something almost personal to ourselves.

As the fire hoses were trained on the inferno, men and women were running bravely in and out of the flaming building, saving here a statue, a religious relic, there a painting, a precious vestment — each separate object in its way a symbol of the huge numbers of human beings whose creativity had made this place.

Human beings whose deepest hopes, imaginative dreams and aspirations had helped create what is perhaps the greatest cathedral in the world.

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