Tourism, cathedrals and communion

Yesterday Sunday as we arrived at the Notre Dame de Paris it was just time for mid-day mass and we sat down to take part in the service. A few days earlier I learned incidentally that the Notre Dame is the most visited place in Paris, before the Louvre or the Sacré Coeur. What does that say about the significance of sacred buildings in the city? At the Hamburg University there is a project "Church and the City", if I recall the name correctly, that does research on the roles of church buildings in cities. What is it that makes people want to visit church buildings? Notre Dame is  very crowded and the steady flow of visitors and tourists does not prevent mass from happening and the powerful organ by far out-sounds the blurry noise of the crowd. 

What struck me was the instruction on participation in the Eucharist: the french text said something like "if you share our faith in the presence of Christ as we have communion you are invited to participate", the English and German instructions said explicitly that unless you share the belief that Christ is present in the bread, you are asked to abstain from partaking. We decided spontaneously that we were French speaking, which we are indeed....

Partaking in communion with many strangers of all kinds of walks of life while a crowd oft tourists slowly walk around as in a non-declared procession was special and indeed beautiful.

I must admit, however, that I found the sanctuary of the Sacré Coeur more dignified and more inspiring, even if the service which was going on there during our visit Monday morning felt less authentic and more routine. Contradictions of churches as public spaces that also are tourist attractions....