CNA Newsroom, Jul 27, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
Bishops and prominent prelates from around the world have joined the French Bishops’ Conference and U.S. bishops in criticizing the Paris Olympics opening ceremony held on July 26 for its depiction of the Last Supper, calling it a deeply deplorable derision of Christianity.
The controversial scene, part of the 1.5 billion euros (about $1.62 billion) spectacle to kick off the 2024 Summer Olympics in a rain-soaked French capital on Friday, featured drag queens portraying the apostles and an overweight DJ as Jesus in what appeared to be a part of a fashion show — apparently mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting.
The official Olympics Twitter account described part of the scene as depicting “the Greek God Dionysus“ making people “aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.“
In a statement released Saturday, the French bishops expressed deep regret over “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore.”
“We thank the members of other religious denominations who have expressed their solidarity,” the statement on July 27 continued.
“This morning, we think of all Christians on all continents who have been hurt by the outrage and provocation of certain scenes.”
The bishops added: “We hope they understand that the Olympic celebration extends far beyond the ideological preferences of some artists.”
Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta said on X he had sent messages to the French Ambassador to Malta, expressing his “distress and great disappointment at the insult to us Christians during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics when a group of drag artists parodied the Last Supper of Jesus.”
The prelate, who also is a Vatican official, said he encouraged others to write the ambassador.
Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, issued a statement calling on Catholics to respond to the Paris incident with prayer and fasting.
Referencing the recent National Eucharistic Congress, Bishop Cozzens wrote, “Jesus experienced his Passion anew Friday night in Paris when his Last Supper was publicly defamed.“
“France and the entire world are saved by the love poured out through the Mass, which came to us through the Last Supper. Inspired by the many martyrs who shed their blood to witness to the truth of the Mass, we will not stand aside and quietly abide as the world mocks our greatest gift from the Lord Jesus,“ the bishop wrote.
“Rather, through our prayer and fasting, we will ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us with the virtue of fortitude so that we may preach Christ—our Lord and Savior, truly present in the Eucharist—for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls.“
Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester called on Catholics to “make their voices heard” in response to what he termed “the gross mockery of the Last Supper.”
The Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Archbishop Fernando Chomali, expressed disappointment with “the grotesque parody of the most sacred thing we Catholics have, the Eucharist,” ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, reported.
“The intolerance of the ‘tolerant’ has no limit. This is not the way to build a fraternal society. We witnessed nihilism at its maximum expression,” he added.
German Bishop Stefan Oster called the “queer Last Supper” scene “a low point and completely superfluous in the staging,” in a post by the German Bishops’ Conference.
Fray Nelson Medina, a well-known Colombian Dominican priest with a vast social media apostolate, stated that he “will not watch a single scene from the Olympic Games. How disgusting what they have done mocking the Lord Jesus Christ and his supreme gift of love. And they are cowards: they wouldn’t mess with Muhammad.”
Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne, Australia, commented on X: “I prefer the original.”
I prefer the original. pic.twitter.com/0xrQ8Ipdmk
— Archbishop Peter A Comensoli (@BishopComensoli) July 27, 2024
‘A minority of the left’
Javier Tebas Medrano, president of La Liga, Spain’s top professional football division, strongly condemned the Parisian drag queen scenes on social media. ACI Prensa reported that Medrano posted an image of the performance with the statement: “Unacceptable, disrespectful, infamous! Using the image of the Last Supper in the Paris Olympic Games is an insult to those of us who are Christians. Where is the respect for religious beliefs?”
Marion Maréchal, a French member of the European Parliament and granddaughter of the famous right-wing leader Jean Marie Le-Pen, addressed “all Christians who felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper” on X, stating: “Know that it is not France that is speaking” in the inauguration “but a minority of the left ready for any provocation.”
Walter Sánchez Silva contributed to this report. Last updated on July 27 with further reactions.
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“I prefer the original”. Melbourne, Australia Archbishop Peter Comensoli. Touche!
(Some may want to check out Brad Miner’s excellent critique of the original in The Catholic Thing, April 12, 2021).
Interesting as this gsrish counterfeit was contrived by someone who engages in acts that are a garish counterfeit of something else.
The Last Supper picture here was not the “original” and not enacted as genuine historians have noted. BTW, the ancient Olympics pre-dated Christianity and participants had other “gods.”
Participants and many others have confirmed that a parody or enactment of sorts of “The Last Supper” was intended.
Evil is getting more bold. France is leading the way to abort ourselves. Performers have expressed pride for their part in the demonic parody, while this pontificate is silent before blasphemous bigotry. The woman mocking Christ called this “The gay New Testament.” Let that soak in.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/drag-queen-confirms-it-was-a-parody-of-last-supper/
More than silence, this pontificate has a consistent history of enabling such blasphemous behavior in the name of dialogue. There are countless examples at this point, a veritable parade of perversion at the Vatican. Three examples are enough to suggest tacit approval of this pontificate for the Olympic Opening Blasphemy: Rupnik’s perversion inspired creations, the Vatican Met cooperation and a thumps up for these papal guests: https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=59088
Let’s pray and stay Catholic.
Thank you for sharing that link God’s Fool.
In 1980 the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Today, well, what about the invasive trashing of the Church and 2,000 years of European heritage, at the hands of the French organizers? The Eldest Daughter of the Church is now a transvestite.
Or, maybe it’s just that while all atheists are equal, some are more equal than others?
In another event, the next-up Synod on Synodality, why should the French be outdone by the wingnut German der Synodal Weg? Inclusiveness! Fiducia Supplicans! No, synodality is “not a parliament,” but still, maybe something like the group-think Tennis Court Oath of 1789?
“Liberty, Equality [and especially] Fraternity!” And now tribal LGBTQ religion! To hell with Paternity or even minimal civility! Following a Paris tradition, it seems like some organizer’s head should roll.
The eldest daughter of the Church is definitely a Grand Orient Freemason.
There is no call for you to belittle atheists within the Catholic’s little spat with everyone else.
Leave it to Catholics to be devoid of a sense of morality and ethical sensiblility. But then, the Catholic God never really was beholden to morality or ethics , right.
What? No comment from the Holy Father?
You are not awake 24/7 are you? Rome is an hour later time zone than Paris so Pope Francis is likely just now waking up.
Still waiting to hear from him, too!
Yeh, but maybe the former Pope Benedict XVI already spoke to the woke in his Regensburg Lecture of 2006…
Between the lines we might detect earlier runaway rationalizations, as when in 1789 a prostitute danced on the altar of Notre Dame in liturgical reverence to the new God of Reason. So, today, the modernday variant (like COVID!) into LGBTQ tribalism—with an infestation of drag queens streaming on the River Seine, or is it pronounced “sane,” or maybe insane, or whatever.
Benedict concluded that “not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God.” Thus spoke the cited 15th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologos to his Persian interlocutor, about another kind of violence folded into the logos-free and fatalistic stream-of-consciousness of the Qur’an. So, more recently, if even the respectful dubia merited silence, then in the cause of inclusive equality, also silence toward French anti-binaries positioning themselves, so to speak, to mismanage the international Olympics.
Another teachable moment, now, and a missed opportunity to enlighten, truly, a darkened world. At the 2018 World Youth Day, the former Pope Benedict would not have fraternally exchanged his crozier for a Wiccan Stang.
You expressed my thoughts. Where is the Vatican?
Pope Francis is too intelligent to be confused by a depiction of something other than The Last Supper.
It is not an explicit criticism of the Vatican or the pope, so likely no comment or condemnation coming, and certainly not from the majority of the bishops.
“The impression we have had for many years (I am now in my eighty-first year) is that bishops, with few exceptions, do not speak out on matters of faith. They do not expose themselves, appear in public, publish, intervene, or comment; they ignore, pretend not to see, do not want trouble, and fear being ridiculed by the modernist majority. We are often confronted with news of scandal, absurdity, or heresy. Yet, everything moves forward with disquieting tranquility, as though nothing has occurred. Perhaps the gravity of these situations is not fully appreciated, or they may feel insufficiently equipped to address them.”
This a passage from an article written around a year ago, which I translated and published a few days ago. It seems to offer some prophetic insights on the role of bishops in public life and the Church, especially now.
Here is the link: https://oraetcogita.substack.com/p/dear-bishops-illuminate-us-on-the.
The Paris organizers issued a weak apology: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/paris-2024-apologizes-for-last-supper-sketch-after-criticism/ar-BB1qLpbh?cvid=3afde4748bb0442a8f76de938fe88d6c&ei=62
But I think that the real story is how the incident was covered–or not covered–by the mainstream media. Track that and see the cultural power of This Present Darkness.
One further comment: AP’s story on the outrage is just so precious.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/paris-olympics-organizers-say-they-meant-no-disrespect-with-last-supper-tableau/ar-BB1qLIU6?cvid=6effb35b6cbd4933b56853afd4e62bd5&ei=11
Has Pope Francis weighed in and condemned this yet? Not as of the time I’m writing this post. But now that I think about it, I won’t hold my breath waiting for Francis to speak out against anything transgendered. That would be too much to ask or hope for, sad to say.
I just read the “apology”.
Foot-rot!
Do they think we’re total idiots?
Heads need to roll.
I see that Cspire, whoever that is, is withdrawing its support from the Olympics (Source: Gavin Ashenden’s twitter).
Until Otherwise Made Evident – by a public condemnation issued by our own “Vatican Secretary of State” the Eminence Parolin, and his “presiding monarch” our Pontiff Francis, it is safe to assume that they are (1) fine with it, or (2) friends with the theatrical producer, the “queer-art” provocateur of Paris, Jolly.
Meanwhile – a publicly-announced world-wide boycott against the IOC’s Closing Ceremony, and against all corporations supporting the Paris Olympics, is in order, until they televise an apology for promoting and producing their deliberately sadistic and perverted and malicious, Christian-hating opening ceremony.
Chris in Maryland: Aren’t you sick and tired of hearing endless group apologies? I am. Perhaps the only thing that would suffice is if INDIVIDUALS were to make a personal public apology and accept the responsibility for their PERSONAL wrongdoing.
That opening line is: “Not to worry.”
And the closing line is: “good for starters.”
(Small phone and fat fingers)
More like the Pope in 1942.
It is horrible to descrate a religious picture, especially, one that depics the basis of Christians and their Mass. There can be no reason or appology that is good enough. It is beneath the standards of the Olympics. No appology can undo what has been done. I agree with Cleo that heads should roll.
Sports – both amateur and professional- has degenerated into bands of uncouth, uncivilized, immoral, money-lusting degenerates. My friends, this has been going on for quite some time; it’s nothing new. Might I remind everyone of the low-life spectacles that have “entertained” the soulless at Super Bowl Games for years now. The ones to blame: those who in any way support these so-called “sports” events. If anyone participates in this damaged and deranged culture, then you are as much to blame as the actors. If you view pornography, you’re as much to blame as the actors and producers who profit from it. If you frequent prostitutes or cruise gay bars, you’re as much to blame as the purveyors of the trade. Why is being a consumer of degenerate sports events any different?
“Clearly there was no intention to show any disrespect to any religious group”
That is just nothing more than a flat-out LIE.
But this isn’t just about mocking Christ. It’s about attacking basic morality and ushering in and celebrating a return to Greco-Roman decadence.
It’s no coincidence that Dionysus was centre stage in mocking the Last Supper and Christianity.
From Wiki:
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia.
As Dionysus Eleutherius (“the liberator”), his wine, music, and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.
Test
Sandra Miesel above re the significance of the media “coverage”.
Agree totally.
ICYMI – See Catholic Herald article of July 29.
I’m getting to this comment rather late (7/31), but I can’t help but point out that James Martin, SJ, usually among the first to remark publicly about all rainbow matters, has been deafeningly silent on this incident. Perhaps I missed his response, if he made one, but the online Catholic sources I usually read have not quoted a syllable from the person who has become the official go-to guy for this misunderstood, marginalized community. I ask this in all seriousness: Has Martin commented publicly about this matter, and if so, what did he say?
Delayed response here.
The French bishops’ response was way too conciliatory, or toothless, if you will.
Fr. de Souza nails it in his article, The Olympic Sacrilege: 5 Points of Context.