Notre-Dame, and many churches in France, are owned by the state and merely used by the church. That gave the French government, and President Macron, a big voice in the restoration project.
The half-hearted “sorry if people were offended” apologies have been Olympian exercises in gaslighting, but I find myself wishing that the Christian community reserved some of that righteousness for more legitimate experiences of persecution.
Even as Prime Minister Victor Orban positions his government as one of the last defenders of Christian culture in Europe, religious affiliation in Hungary has dropped to a record low.