In the Paris skyline flames rose as though from hell
The ancient church gutted is now just a shell
The treasures within lost to ravaging flames
Symbolic of Rome and its clerical games
Punished in ways never foreseen
Sins of abuse that should never have been
Centuries Notre Dame survived
Because of the faithful – or in spite?

So near Easter en route to Calvary
The message was plain to hear and to see
Weep not for me said He, you whose hearts are hard
But for the young you would raise in this hollow facade
This is ever the way of the Cross
Better earthly riches than the truth is lost

© 2019 Tony Smith

A former academic, Tony Smith has written extensively on a wide range of subjects as diverse as folk music and foreign policy issues in the Australian Review of Public Affairs, the Journal of Australian Studies Review of Books, Overland, the Australian Quarterly, Eureka Street, Online Opinion and Unleashed.