Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday he is "thrilled" that French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild Paris' Notre Dame cathedral after it was heavily damaged in a massive fire on Monday.
"My wife and I were sitting there mesmerized by this horrible events," Gingrich told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We have been there many times. It is one of the great centers of western civilization and Christianity and we were heartbroken."
Gingrich noted that the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is welcoming donations through an online collection, and he thinks it is "exactly right" that the world-famous church will be rebuilt. Further, the United States has "done it before" and knows how to make the rebuilding project happen.
"Ten years from now, we should have Notre Dame right back the way it was as a great center of civilization," Gingrich said.
Gingrich noted that he and wife Calista, the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, were in Venice two weeks ago where they observed how another landmark was rebuilt.
"They had a huge tower, 311 feet tall, that fell in 1902, crashed to the ground and the Venetian people said we'll rebuild it as it was, where it was," said Gingrich. "It took them 10 years and they build exactly the same tower."
Further, he pointed out that bomb damage in Great Britain during World War made places look "hopeless," but they were rebuilt.
"I think President Macron was exactly right last night to show defiance and to say that Notre Dame will be back again and it will be one of the great landmarks of western civilization," Gingrich said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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