Paris’ Notre Dame rector offers hope to virus-hit worshipers

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Masked worshipers on Friday lined up to enter the church across from the Louvre Museum and attend a Christmas Eve mass – the second year of holiday services under the shadow of the virus.  Monsignor Patrick Chauvet, the rector of Notre Dame Cathedral that has been closed to visitors and religious events since the devastating fire nearly three years ago was greeting them from a safe distance as a member of the congregation in the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois Church generously sprayed their hands with a disinfectant. In the lead up to holidays, France has recorded its highest-yet number of daily COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have been rising, but the government has held off on imposing curfews, closures or other restrictions for the festivities.