Originally Posted by
Edwin Santos
Wrong. Notre Dame Cathedral is owned by the French state which has granted exclusive use of it to the Archdiocese. It is expected that both will have a say in how it will be repaired and rebuilt.
If there was a disagreement between the two parties, my bet would be that the buck stops with the French government. A lot of this stems from a 1905 law that separated church and state in France which basically resulted in the state taking ownership of church properties and granting exclusive perpetual use rights back to the church.
This said, I wouldn't worry too much. The French government is as hung up on tradition as anyone, and I would be surprised to see them advocate for anything generically commercial. However, anyone who has been to Notre Dame, especially in the summer, would agree that it is as much a tourist attraction as anything else. There are always throngs of tourists there. I'm talking thousands of people.