Again, I am neither a Catholic nor a lawyer, but how bitter it will still be to witness the demolition of Burlington’s most illustrious building and park at the same time as we witness the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris.
The five-year effort to rebuild Notre Dame involved people and organisations from all around the world, including Will Wallace-Gusakov, a carpenter from central Vermont and specialist in post and beam construction. It was done in a public partnership with the Catholic Church, and could not have been done by them alone.
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Yet now, Vermont’s Supreme Court will allow the Church to demolish Burlington’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. I confess to having no clear idea of how to prevent this from happening. Surely, the Church must feel badly about doing this? Surely, the housing crisis will not be solved by whatever housing will be built on this one city block in Burlington.
But saving the cathedral and its grounds might just bring visitors and shoppers back into downtown Burlington — a change most Vermonters would welcome…