A centerpiece of the much-derided opening ceremonies at the Paris Olympics has rippled the pond of an all-too-common Catholic complacence. Catholics are sadly used to being led like lambs to the slaughter on the altar of woke ideology, which often claims compatibility with Christianity. But this raised some hackles.
During a four-hour spectacle in the pouring rain—which included appearances by Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, and singers disturbingly costumed as the decapitated Marie Antoinette—a tableau (rather, a parody) of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper was recreated down a fashion-show catwalk with a woman as Christ, surrounded by a gaggle of grotesquely gaudy drag queens.
This was passed off as an artistic expression of “festivité.” How the Last Supper fits in with the theme of apolitical, international, athletic contests is hard to see. Not making matters any clearer, the display was coupled with a performance by a man painted blue and posing as a Smurf-esque Dionysius (or Vishnu-esque, since we’re dealing with syncretisms), keeping Christianity and mythology in the same general categories as the fictional and aesthetical. How very quaint and je ne sais quoi.
Even under the auspices of the Eldest Daughter of the Church, the global attitude towards Christianity is being more and more aggressively swallowed up in ever-wokening jaws. In this secular appropriation or annexation or apology, Christianity is being given a blasé new aura in a brave new world.
But Friday’s blasphemy has garnered more outrage and denunciation than the Catholic world is accustomed to—and that’s a positive thing. Bishop Barron, solid as ever, made a statement calling on Catholics to “make their voices heard” in objection to what he called a “gross mockery of the Last Supper,” and the result of “a deeply secularist postmodern society.”
Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, WI and Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, TX also made their censure known while making demand for immediate reparation from Catholics. It is always heartening to hear bishops calling for “swords about the cross,” as G. K. Chesterton described the act of Pope Pius V in assembling the Holy League against the invading Turks in 1571 (more on Lepanto and Chesterton’s poem hereafter).
It was also encouraging to hear Senator Marco Rubio of Florida throw his Catholic gauntlet against what he called a “freak show.” But perhaps more interesting was Elon Musk, of all people, who posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the act was “extremely disrespectful to Christians,” and followed up with the provocative post: “Christianity has become toothless.”
Toothless. While Musk is known for enigmatic, off-the-wall statements, this one treads on a central Catholic nerve. What has happened to Catholics in their duty to respond to such insult, such vicious reframing and contextualizing, making the Faith a picturesque thing rather that The Thing? Christianity may be becoming a toothless thing in fighting back against such teethy attacks, following Robert Frost’s pragmatic American maxim regarding good fences and good neighbors. But such mentalities, whether isolationist or assimilationist, do not speak well for the Church Militant.
In his brilliant and famous ballad recounting the Battle of Lepanto, Chesterton says that the tepid response and outright refusal of the crowned heads of Europe to the Pope’s call to arms indicated that “dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise.” There is a righteous indignation and fury that is appropriate to Catholics, even as they toe the line of being peacemakers and enemy lovers. There is time to turn the other cheek and a time to turn over the money-changing tables.
This outrageous drag-queen association to the Faith represents an increasingly vogue affront to make Faith in Jesus Christ just another cultural frill or folly, especially in America as leftist politicians labor to indemnify the Christian creed with unChristian policies. Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency, is especially and particularly guilty of this manipulative and presumptive paradigm-shift as she pushes the claim that abortion can be in accordance with the Faith. Why not—in a relativist world?
“It’s important to note,” said Harris in 2022 at the NAACP National Convention, “that to support a woman’s ability—not her government, but her—to make that decision does not require anyone to abandon their faith of their beliefs.” And further, “For those of us of faith,” (Harris is a Baptist,) “I think that we agree, many of us, that there’s nothing about this issue that will require anyone to abandon their faith or change their faith.”
Au contraire. But it goes on and on, down the years—and it is absolutely false and absolutely fierce. It is nothing more than an attempt to redefine or recontextualize the tradition of Church teaching (and natural law) according to modern-day perceptions of convenience and career paths and corporate power.
Kamala Harris has no authority or business telling Catholics what their Faith encompasses when it concerns her inhuman political ends. By Catholic, we must mean to be unwaveringly faithful to the morals and Magisterium of the Church, seeking the good, the true, and the beautiful without compromise or contortion.
But strangled as they are by sex and gender ideologies, social justice agendas, litigious culture, chameleon cowardice, and heterodox infiltration, Catholic citizens tend to be far too “safe” and “inclusive” and “tolerant” to pose too great a threat to a canceling godless society. Musk is right—we have become, as Shakespeare put it, “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
Catholics are far too prone to the bait that Catholicism (and Christianity as a whole) is somehow harmonious with the popular evil at large. But the Paris debacle is a prime target for innocently angry disapproval and vociferous fight-back. Speak out in anger and fear not.
There is no cause for Catholics to hide or run from the fight to maintain the reality of Catholicism in their lives. There is no way to be a Catholic, or work out our salvation, if not through fighting the good fight—and with more rigor and resolve than those who bring the fight to us.
Our opponents are ready and roaring, like the sleepless army of Mordor besieging Minas Tirith. There is no flight to heaven without that fight, without spiritual warfare, for those who march with the angels are defended in battle. Even God does not shy away from the language of warfare, for it is accurate.
When the bristling Turkish fleet came into sight on the Gulf of Patras at dawn on October 7, 1571, the seasoned Admiral Gian-Andrea Doria approached the young Captain General, Don Juan of Austria, and informed him that there was still time to retreat before the undefeated foe. Don Juan looked at the old man and said, “The time for counsel has passed. Now is the time for war.”
It is still the time for war, as the Paris Olympics blasphemously declares. It goes on and it must go on. Miguel de Cervantes, the creator of the Catholic hero Don Quixote, learned this at the Battle of Lepanto, recognizing the heroism of one who did not fear foolishness or failure. In the words of St. Paul:
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.
The liberal Left will fight to say that drag queens can be acceptable in Christian iconography, just as abortion can be acceptable in Christian morality. They will fight and fight tirelessly and terribly to normalize what is abnormal and abhorrent.
It is up to Catholics to stop them with our prayers and our cheerful yet hardy resolution to uphold and defend the good, true, and beautiful.
“If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you.” That is as true as ever it was. The Paris Olympics exhibition was just another pass at diluting and desacralizing Christianity to make it fit within the progressively progressive mindset. Let it not be that the innocence of anger and surprise is dead in our day, as it was in 1571. Let us not be toothless. Make your voices heard and your teeth felt.
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This defamation of Christ will continue as long as the Church -beginning with her Pope – refuse to state bluntly that homosexual acts are unnatural, an offense to God, and a serious sin against the natural order. But, alas, our Catholics from top to bottom are feckless wimps who try to play nice in the sandbox.
I spoke to my Pachamama statue and it said everything is cool. If it’s ok with Fr. Martin, we good! Off to da races!
One might think that this, too, shall pass. Especially if we extend a “spontaneous, non-liturgical, and non-scandalous” blessing on every “couple” of drag queens who feel (what’s that word again, oh yes) excluded.
But be not dismayed. Surely, for our United States athletes, the Catholic president and his Aztec vice president will find a way to set things right! Or, is it Left? Back home we still gotta push LGBTQ tribalism and the transgender thingy, and even legitimize fetal infanticide by reversing Roe v. Wade. Very French and Catharist, all of that! Besides, the German der Synodal Weg already has it all figured out…unisex liturgies with invalid women deaconesses, all within an overall reversal of sexual morality! But the Eldest Daughter of the Church has already made the change! A drag queen!
“Time is greater than space.” Alaric smiles.
Last I checked, Catholics/Christians are not permitted to be violent.
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There is no place in the NT that tells anyone to throw a good right punch or left hook. Yes, Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and chairs of those who sold doves, but it is unclear how he “drove out” the money changers. And that is just one incident.
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The rest is all forgive 70 times 7; turn the other check; don’t judge. Be merciful. Love.
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In other words, say nothing and roll over and play dead. Mercy is not incompatible with speaking the Truth. If we deny Christ, Scripture tells us that he will deny us.
Don’t get mad at me. That’s what I’ve learned over 30 years of regular church attendance and the like. But I note that fasting and prayer and making reparations for the sins of those who are yet alive (and are not the least bit repentant) just does not seem to seem to end this kind of really vulgar mockery of our Lord.
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are all needed to turn hearts and minds to Christ. But equally important is to speak the truth courageously at all times, to all people, in all places. I truly sympathize with you as what you say about what you’ve heard in church resonates with my experience as well. A lot of what’s been taught in our churches amounts to woke nonsense. Catholics yearn to hear the truth. Too often when you have a courageous clergymen, he’s yanked out of the parish by the bishop because some dimwitted Catholic complained about him to the bishop. Here’s my version of purgatory: the presence of God where we get to hear the unvarnished truth about everything – including ourselves.
I knew this event would prove the utter impotence of the modern Catholic Church. In times past, all of the people involved in this blasphemy would be fearing for their reputation, livelihoods and lives. Today, our enemies have correctly deduced that we are entirely incapable of being men and standing up to them in any way which really has an impact.
I expect no boycotts, no doxxing of the parties involved, no fear amongst said parties, no damage of property, no loss of employment, no denial of service, no stigma and absolutely NO violence or imprisonment!
In other words, there is nobody in the Catholic Church that is going to do anything of substance to the parties involved, and that will just further embolden them to do even worse things in the future.
I like the old Church where evildoers were quickly brought to justice in one way or another and were too scared to spit on God (and us). Three cheers for real Christian men.
About a vertebrate Christ versus only turning the other cheek…
Any fully Christian reconciliation is a re-bonding of both hearts, not a one-sided and obsequious doormat. The milquetoast Christ? So, the lay theologian Josef Pieper and the cleric Thomas Aquinas (very synodal!) distinguish between, yes, an always heartfelt “readiness” to forgive without bitterness—from incomplete instances awaiting full reconciliation in this fallen and carnivorous world…
First PIEPER: “Christ drove the money-changers from the temple with a whip, and when the most patient of men stood before the high priest and was struck in the face by a servant, he did NOT turn the other cheek, but answered: ‘If there was harm in what I said, tell us what was harmful in it, but if not, why dost thou strike me?’” (Jn 18:23).
Then AQUINAS in his commentary on St. John’s Gospel:
“Holy Scripture must be understood in the light of what Christ and his saints have actually practiced. Christ did not offer his other cheek, nor Paul either. Thus to interpret the injunction of the Sermon on the Mount [turning the other cheek] LITERALLY [italics] is to misunderstand it. This injunction signifies rather the readiness of the soul to bear, IF IT BE NECESSARY [italics], such things and worse, without bitterness against the attacker. This readiness our Lord showed, when he gave up his body to be crucified. That response of the Lord was useful, therefore, for our instruction” (Pieper, “Fortitude and Temperance,” 1954; citing Aquinas John 18, lect. 4,2).
This blasphemy went to far!
Gods sign? There were massive power outages in the whole city of Paris while this satanic 666 ceremony…
youtube search:
a Priest replies to disgusting Olympics Blasphemy
Fr Daniel Maria
The many authors who wrote on the blasphemy in Paris mostly haven’t looked very deeply, just fueling anger confusion, dissension .
God didn’t permit the blasphemy against his son and other issues pass by unnoticed.
The blasphemy about the Lords supper was responded to by Him by shutting down all Paris light and darkness to be there with only Sacre Couer cathedral shining like a beacon in the house where his son is present Father God would not permit this blasphemy to pass by unpunished. All the other abuses were responded to in ways used in our day and young responding, e g sign language by young athlete when not permitted to say the name of Jesus. Beautiful and imaginative response. So all around the world could receive message.
Other abuses God dealt with via help of nature. All forms including dirty waters.
And the most glorious responses were the hundreds of thousands of people all around the world who came out prayed, and worshipped. Bishops, priests, lay people came out and spoke in horror about what happened. Blasphemy. For this Fatima, Lourdes,churches, youth , groups, hundreds of thousands singing the Ave Maria whilst holding candles.others praying Rosary Imagine. Paris had thousands come out and pray and sing and worship. Churches all prayed, fasted, we actually saw a huge miracle and didn’t see it because we expect miracles to be the way of pictured in Bible.
God uses the people where they’re at and in their time.
Imagine blasphemy against the Lords supper and all of Paris goes into darkness except for where the tabernacle is. No greater miracle is needed. God the Father responded to honour his son “Father glorify me” and the Father “ I have glorified you and will glorify you again “ (Jn chapt 17)as he had promised. For those who have eyes to see we saw a great miracle. The type of OT major miracles
The whole world via all forms of media saw the praying, the singing, the total darkness and the single shining bright place the church where the tabernacle holding Jesus is. No! satan did not win he was humiliated again and slithered back to where he came from
For me God showed that he will tolerate only for a time and then no more. These were very blessed olympics and nothing to do with medals.
On 2 Aug 2024, at 9:32 AM, cczzek@ozemail.com.au wrote:
Paris – Christians under attack
From
Sebastian Lukomski , CitizenGO
My blood is still boiling.
We are being humiliated at these Games.
I thought I’d seen it all after the abhorrent blasphemous attacks against our faith at the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony.
Look at what happened to our fellow Christians:
Brazilian surfer Joao Chianca was targeted for being Christian. He was forced to remove a Christ the Redeemer image from his board.
Then there’s Raissa Leal, a young Catholic skater who won a bronze medal but was told she couldn’t thank Jesus Christ publicly!
Undeterred, she signed “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life” in sign language.
Can’t you see what they are doing? They are clearly trying to silence us!
We were humiliated at the opening ceremony with a grotesque parody of the Last Supper.
Now they continue to pick on us. It seems like anyone can perform and express freely except Christians.
Our faith is under attack, and we cannot stand by silently.
We cannot stand idle while our faith is mocked and disrespected.
Be merciful. Don’t judge.
Do you admonish the tranvestites or do you admonish Christians?
In Matthew 10, Jesus said: I came to bring trouble, not peace. 35 I came to turn sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law. 36 Your worst enemies will be in your own family…And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.42
These Last Supper transvestites have risked loss of reward by their act of violently absurd disrespect to the Lord and toward us. They have sinned against His First Commandment and they have sinned against us who love and believe in Him.
BTW, Christians, no less than any other stripe of person, are entitled to free speech and free expression. We are not bound in any way, shape or form from lodging protest against blasphemous acts.
Further, the argument that Jesus is a pacifist is countered by the Church holding capital punishment and just war principles for centuries. Has the Church erred in teaching those?
I’m very sad that the miracle was not seen clearly.
Like OT huge visible miracles
What we reading even here is the very very negative and not Gods might work. He showed who is greater
There was a reason why he show his mighty power and he did spectacularly. I’m not judging the ridiculous attempts the demean athe holiest of our liturgy what they duos with that showed utter sinfulness on the designers part and the the disrectfuluness of those who wish to be taken seriouslly and those with a condition ( homosexuality) instead it backfired
God saw his son disrespected so seriously and responded mightily. Visibly for those who could not be there
We have a heart of stone when we cannot any longer believe in miracles brought before our eyes.
Yes there was a blasphemy but God said no more.
We judge from a distance. I’m not judging church and believers there has been a response unlike any other seen in my score years. I saw a miracle. Others may have seen the sin.
I agree Mrs. Hess. No reason to get bent out of shape because a handful of people committed blasphemy. Their views don’t represent the vast majority of people involved with the Olympics. I just shake my head and move on. I really don’t need a reason to be angry today.
Oh, I’m plenty bent out of shape.
It’s so sad Mr. Gerald. You think of the struggle and challenges for athletes from desperately poor countries like Haiti to make it to the Olympics and then be exposed to this woke travesty .
It disrespects everyone and their accomplishments.
Gerald, you say, “No reason to get bent out of shape because a handful of people committed blasphemy.”
People are not upset because of that per se, although one SHOULD get upset at witnessing blasphemy, just as one should get upset at witnessing an assault or murder, or abuse of an elderly person or child, or merciless teasing and bullying, etc. etc.
But in this case, people are upset because it was done under the official auspices of the Olympics. Quite a different thing, I hope you can see, to have a major international organization that is supposed to be neutral towards all, facilitating the worldwide viewing of something so offensive to God and all who are Christians.
Mrs. Hess, Where exactly do you find “Don’t Judge” as a Christian principle when Jesus said the exact opposite? The popular perversion of Christianity has been circulated, mainly in this era of pop pyschology, precisely to rationalize taking refuge in the very toothless Christianity discussed here. Jesus commanded us to not judge souls, which is entirely differennt from His command that we are to be judgmental and condemning of evil behavior.
“The popular perversion of Christianity has been circulated, mainly in this era of pop psychology, precisely to rationalize taking refuge in the very toothless Christianity discussed here.”
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You said it
The money changers set up shop in the Court of the Gentiles. The Court of the Gentiles was the only place where non-convert Gentiles could pray to the God of the Jews. You could say that driving out the money changers was making room for the Gentiles. The early Church was made open to the Gentiles as seen in the Council of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the book of Acts.
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You might want to read Christ’s messages to the churches in Revelation 2. Most of them contained rebukes. The one to Laodicea is very blunt.
Depends how you understand “violent”. For example, St John Chrysostom, the Doctor of the Church stated regarding blasphemy:
“But since our discourse has now turned to the subject of blasphemy, I desire to ask one favor of you all (…) And should you hear anyone in the public thoroughfare, or in the midst of the forum, blaspheming God; go up to him and rebuke him; and should it be necessary to inflict blows, spare not to do so. Smite him on the face; strike his mouth; sanctify your hand with the blow, and if any should accuse you, and drag you to the place of justice, follow them thither; and when the judge on the bench calls you to account, say boldly that the man blasphemed the King of angels! For if it be necessary to punish those who blaspheme an earthly king, much more so those who insult God. It is a common crime, a public injury; and it is lawful for everyone who is willing, to bring forward an accusation. Let the Jews and Greeks learn, that the Christians are the saviours of the city; that they are its guardians, its patrons, and its teachers. Let the dissolute and the perverse also learn this; that they must fear the servants of God too; that if at any time they are inclined to utter such a thing, they may look round every way at each other, and tremble even at their own shadows, anxious lest perchance a Christian, having heard what they said, should spring upon them and sharply chastise them.”
Further to this, St Robert Bellarmine averred that it would have been lawful for Christians to overthrow the persecuting Roman Emperors – that they did not is due to their lack of temporal power.
I’m ready to make my voice heard but as an ordinary American Catholic, where and how should I direct it? Please provide that information. Many of us have had enough and just need to know which are the available channels and resources.
To send a letter to the Pope:
Address the Pope as “Your Holiness” or “Most Holy Father”.
Maintain a respectful, civil and polite tone.
Send to: His Holiness Pope Francis, 00120 Vatican City. He does not use e-mail, so the postal service is the only way for us laity to contact him.
https://www.vaticano.com/en/how-to-write-to-pope-francis/
To your local bishop and priest: I assume you have their addresses.
To the Olympic Committee: I do not know.
IOC Number : +41 216216111
Email : @Olympics.com/IOC/contact-us
The priest on EWTN had a sermon yesterday about why children still should be brought into this world, as the Gospel said “…not to pull up the weeds intentionally sowed by an enemy, or the wheat will be uprooted as well, but that to separate the two at the harvest and burn the weeds that choked the wheat.” (paraphrasing)
Many, many Christians do not agree with Americans Harris, Biden, Whitmer, Newsome and others who select their own definition of mortal sins. Also, look to our education system as one that is dysfunctional in teaching morality and critical behavorial thinking.
The silence from the Church is defining so why should anyone be surprised by this desecration when the progressives within the Church are leaning, maybe leading in this direction while the conservatives are dismissed by the highest authorities in the Church.
I agree with Dr. Fitzpatrick, but other than to attempt to respond to the thousands of posts in various online forums and other media, what exactly are we supposed to do?! Many of the athletes are people of faith, and they had nothing to do with the French Opening Ceremonies, so “boycotting the Olympics” is not an option. I’m sure many of the sponsors of the Olympics had no idea this type of ceremony was coming, so boycotting the sponsors is not appropriate or helpful.
Here’s what I think. I think people of faith, especially Catholics, need to do everything we can to get involved with the upcoming Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
If we are people of influence (rich!), we need to step up and get on the committees and work to make sure that the U.S. offers a wholesome, non-controversial, inspiring Opening (and Closing) Ceremony. We need to find corporate and individual sponsors who will not tolerate blasphemy against ANY religion and will put the kabosh on it (perhaps by withdrawing sponsorship funds)!
We need to make sure that the Los Angeles Olympics do not become a platform for ANY political or social agenda–it’s an athletic competition, something that should be appropriate for families, children, teens, senior citizens!
While allowing individual athletes and others involved with the Olympics to make choices that are legal (e.g., embracing their same-sex attraction, which is legal in the U.S.), they should be required to “keep it to themselves” when they are in the Olympic venues working out or competing, and not make the Olympics an opportunity for them to lobby for their controversial political viewpoints. (This happened in the figure skating World Championship last year, when one of our American figure skaters who is “openly queer”–bisexual and pansexual–came out and made sure that everyone knew her orientation, even though it has nothing to do with figure skating and competition!)
Sure, go ahead and light up the social media platforms with comments, but what will stop this kind of offence against God and His Church is when God-fearing people get involved rather than just sit in front of TV or I-Phone screen.
Note: I am involved with the sport of figure skating–both of my grown daughters test, compete, and one of them is a part-time coach. They started skating when they were toddlers.
I fear, Mr. Fitzpatrick, that your exhortation is decades late.
The majority of Catholics — in America, anyway — have long since deadened their capacity for moral outrage by voting for the death cult that is the Democratic Party in election after election after election.
We’ve seen more than a billion (with a ‘B’) of our children slaughtered for convenience’s sake over the past half century around the world. And now we are seeing the young survivors of that holocaust being mutilated and sexualized by schools and libraries.
And you expect us to be upset by the sight of a bunch of fat guys frolicking in their skivvies?
I’m afraid that the *insulte scandaleuse* in Paris was just the evil one sticking his thumb in the eye of Jesus’ Church to demonstrate how it now holds sway.
Here. There. And even — or, especially? — in Rome.
BTW, I haven’t seen any protest coming from Bergoglio or his Dark Vatican about this grotesque tableau. But, then again, why would there be? It’s clear that Bergoglio’s “everyone, everyone, everyone” includes the evil one itself.
Sadly, what you say so well, is true, plainly so. Francis does nothing to suggest otherwise.
And why should Bergoglio say anything, Who is he to judge?
Once again, Brineyman, well stated.
Step one – Don’t watch the Olympics.
Step two – When asked by others if you are following certain games, tell them no and why and encourage them to do likewise. Call them out if they don’t share your conviction.
Step three – If so inclined and offered the opportunity, make public comments.
Andrew Dymek, Amen to that!
Couple related points:
1) Foxnews.com shows Jill Biden applauding The Last Supper (TLS) drag queen show.
2) I need help refreshing my memory: Didn’t Timothy Cardinal Dolan schmooze among the Met Opera Gala participants dressed in church vestments? If memory serves correctly, I recall he was not concerned.
3) Harris at some point in her public life apparently espoused health care, safety, and education for ANY “person” (specifically including illegal, criminal immigrants) on US soil. That she disavows safety or health care to persons in the womb does not strike Catholics as contradictory, as false, as illogical? Yet some would vote for her as their president?
4) Foxnews.com also reports some LGBTQ upperling as saying TLS show did not go far enough.
5) One Fox commentator claimed to have seen male genitalia peeping out from under his wardrobe malfunction. She claimed the exhibition continued beyond the point of a malfunction.
No condemnation from the pope, no condemnation from the ecclesial community as a whole. The atheistic secularization of the Church continues apace, and The Day is Far
Spent and Night Is At Hand.
Agreement with Sean Fitzpatrick that we need a Don Quixote. Cervantes’ famous story is a reevaluation of chivalry and war and return to Christian sanity. Granted a return to a fearless Catholicism is warranted. Although Quixote saw dragons everywhere. “The liberal Left will fight to say that drag queens can be acceptable in Christian iconography” (Fitzpatrick).
While abortion is a constant within the homosexual community [understood in its broad spectrum of perversity] a similar constant exists within Catholicism, what can be named the Righteous Right. They’re the brothers who fault Vat II, Paul VI, the Novus Ordo for all the ills of the Church, jaundiced visionaries who can’t see beyond the Council and the past already sickened with seething secular humanists among clergy and lettered intellectuals. An avalanche on the brink of bursting the dam.
Vat II providentially preempted the deluge, reducing the impending damage by containment within the Church. Although the falling away of clergy, recalcitrant laity [controversy over the pill a leading catalyst] was great it otherwise would have been wholly disastrous.
Yes. We need teeth today. However, if we remain disunited persisting in faulting the Council, desirous of banishing the Novus Ordo we play into the hands of those in command who wish to banish the TLM, and censure those who are deemed backwardists. Sinful ideologues. United we stand, divided we fall.
At the Met Opera Gala in 2018, some drag participants dressed in church vestments. On Cardinal Dolan reportedly said nothing against that mockery but instead focused on all the lapsed Catholics who approached him to share memories of their Catholic childhoods. Re the transvestite travesty, Cardinal Dolan simply noted that sometimes the church is mocked. At the end, he said:
“This is a great catechetical tool.”
http://www.facebook.com/TheCatholicChannel/videos/cardinal-dolan-on-the-2018-met-gala/829730733876961/
Well, you saw what happened at the Cathedral not long ago.
Our world is quickly drifting to becoming another Sodom and Gomorrah, it time for us to repent before God sends fire to purify the world Just like Mother Mary Warn us severally. The choice is ours
A targeted boycott? The Closing Ceremonies?
A flood of letters/postcards to the IOC AND our national sports committee?
Masses of Reparation?
They will just laugh, I’m sure, but still.
Where did the money come for this obscene extravaganza?
Is this the way we want to use the world’s resources?
I think we, all of us, need to do some serious soul searching.
Andrew;
Your 7:21 a.m.
Choose your adjective – 1) blasphemous, 2) outrageous, 3) disgusting, 4) Sad
5) pathetic or – 6)MY favorite -ALL 5.
I didn’t see the offensive display (lucky me) and until someone with some WEIGHT says something about it – I will join you in NOT watching the olympics.
BTW – The chances of anyone with some weight saying anything meaningful – not good.
I am a devout Catholic, and I am outraged by the opening ceremony of the Olympics!!!!!!!,it was a insult to Jesus and his Holy Priests and Religious and Bishops!!!!!!!!!!,shame on you!!!!!!!!!
What an insult to Jesus and his Holy priests and Bishops, drag queens mocking Jesus, what an insult!!!!
“Christianity has become toothless.” –Elon Musk
That’s putting it kindly! Christianity, and in particular Catholic Christianity has indeed become notoriously toothless!
I get around to a lot of different parishes in different cities and have heard plenty of toothless homilies on protecting the environment, and the nebulous “love God and your neighbor.”
But almost all of my friends and I cannot remember the last time we heard a homily denouncing the hot button immoral evils saturating our culture: abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, pornography, contraception, euthanasia, etc., which constantly slam us in the face every time we turn on the TV, watch a movie, or surf the internet.
Much less have we ever heard that we cooperate with these intrinsic evils when we vote for political candidates who support these evils if we have another choice of a viable, more moderate alternative candidate, even if that other candidate is not “perfect” and/or we don’t like his personality.
As Pope St. John Paul II reminds us (of what should be obvious to any thinking person) that when we don’t have the perfect candidate to vote for, we vote for the one who will at least limit the harm done by evil laws. (EVANGELIUM VITAE #73)
In my thirty years as a Catholic, I’ve not heard such a sermon from a parish priest/bishop. Pity.
Anti-Catholic bigotry would not be as pervasive if it were not so common among Catholics, many of whom seem to think they have a right to say the stupiest and most ignorant things about the faith because they can make claims of some level of affiliation. What’s worse, is that too many of us refuse to confront Catholic anti-Catholicism.
As long as we have Church leadership that is beholden to the ruling elite in the press, academia and politics, the voice of ordinary Catholics is meaningless and likely to be branded as extremist and annoying at best. And when the Catholic literati couch every opinion in unmistakable pot-shots at the political undesirables (oh, that “off-the-wall” and “enigmatic” Musk “of all people”), so defined by their enlightened colleagues in academia and the media, it’s no wonder that faithful Catholics have come to realize they carry no weight even in the Church. It’s a bit rich that the very ones who pulled our teeth bemoan toothlessness.
For what it’s worth, here is an official list of sponsors. One can certainly pick a few and write letters. It may help something. I heard some tech firm pulled its ads already.
https://parisgameslive.com/sponsors/
And good point about getting involved in LA Olympics. However, only Paris, France could have done this.
We watched Chariots of Fire last night to get better inspiration and reminder of how far it has degenerated since 1924. His moral decision then was not to run/compete on the Sabbath!
Adrienne above – Only Paris could have done this? Last I checked, the LA Dodgers weren’t in Paris.
Thanks for the list of sponsors. C Spire, a tech firm has pulled its support.
The apologies to date are a joke. Heads need to roll.
I will be boycotting the Closing Ceremonies.
The modern Olympic Games were started, after all, in imitation of the games celebrated by the ancients to honor their pagan gods (demons). Perhaps the unspeakable blasphemy perpetrated in Paris should be seen merely as the “outing” of what was already there ab initio in the neo-pagan humanism that begat the modern Olympic Games.
Where is the online petition that we can sign to send to France notice of our outrage? There needs to be one created so the officials can see it is not just 10 bishops objecting, but thousands of people. Who will create one such online petition?
so much wasted angst. it was NOT a parody of the Leonardo’s parody of the Last Supper. that’s right, HE wasn’t there. learn your Greek art and mythology before you start adding art critiques to your blog.
The evidence strongly points to it being a parody or “take” on “the Last Supper”. I know plenty about Greek art and mythology, and also have a degree in art. And wrote a detailed passage on “The Last Supper” in The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius Press, 2004).
Try again.
Oh, yes. A padody.
Just like Hitler and Nazism were a parody of the Jews.
Our church has become a guard dog who refuses to bark.
They trans people showed the world where they are coming from. Now the world knows. They even had a child on stage with them. We all know about the gender stuff being taught to children and youth. Hopefully many people noted this because it is one of the worst things to happen in my lifetime.
Initially I didn’t feel much about that, for some reason. Probably because those figures look like idiots. They really made themselves look idiotic. I recalled somehow my grandfather’s story, how in his village they would have a religious procession with a priest, icons, peasants etc. and in a parallel to it the would be a mockery, Komsomol members going along singing “Sergius is a priest, Sergius is a priest, Serious is an old boot with holes”. That was disgusting yet who were the idiots there?
I also thought that those people acted out a new religion, of the “unity” and “peace” and whatever else which is a mockery of Christianity, obviously. It is empty. It is a perversion of true peace of Christ, true unity in Him and so on. They did not think so of course but they gave a symbol nevertheless. And the occasion is very fitting, “all nations united”.
Today though I looked closer and found that in that mockery was also a child present. For some reason I read it as an antichrist. Or an allusion to a revolting figure of a fake Madonna with a fake diabolical child in Gibson’s’ ‘The Passion of The Christ’. I would say the child really makes it.
The article wreaks of Christian nationalist persecution complex. Note the repeated mentions of politics, “leftist politicians,” and “us vs them” rhetoric. It’s really sad when we see a political party being absorbed and rallied by such supposed victimhood. This is about the athletes and there are many devout christian athletes competing, but not one word of protest on this from them. That speaks volumes. Christian nationalism has nothing to do with the goal of morals or being Christ-like. It’s about greed, power, and division… forwarding a political agenda to further the white Christian tribe above all others, and attempting to achieve this by posing as victims under attack. Politicians use this to as a devise and it’s disingenuous. Guess what, it’s not all about you.
My comment is not published yet but I will add. I have just seen “the rider on the pale horse” being a part of the program (“and the hell was following him”). Now I understand why I was not perturbed by the visual and verbal reference to ‘the Last Supper’. It is the same thing which began some time ago. Most expect the Apocalypse to be a grand disaster. No, the Apocalypse takes the shape of a postmodern collage, seemingly accidental sets of symbols, events etc. We already had “a saving abortion-tainted vaccine” staged in the Salisbury cathedral as communion = a new communion. We already had the churches close to those who reject that new communion but open to those who partook it – i.e. we already had the mockery of the Last Supper performed by the Church itself. Why then are you surprised with some heathen’s mockery of it? Then we had a show of the Red Dragon in the Vatican on the Feast of the Candlemas. Now we have this. It will continue like this to the end. Our task is not to become a part of that show and speak the truth.
This blasphemy hides far much more than meets the eyes. Deliberately, they offended Christianity in what they think smart ways not to be caught, rendering Catholics as naive uneducated people.
Once the damage was done, it would be late to expose the hidden secret messages that they passed.
One of the secret messages is assimilating Jesus to Donisyus, as they infiltrated previously in many platforms that Jesus story is a Catholic invention, mirroring a much older myth of a Dionysius who had exactly the same story Jesus, including the rock of Christianity, Jesus’ sacrifice!
What is dangerous in this, other than the infiltration and brainwashing, is their claim about inclusion, love and tolerance, as if Dionysius represent a religion.
Even more, this exposes the real intentions of whom behind the scene, the real perpetrators and not some French designer who was caught in the act.
Well, we did liberate Paris in WWII (per History Channel): After more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
There ya go.
The second hidden secret message in this blasphemy is, they don’t care initially if Dionysius myth is or was true or not. The real target here is to present both Dionysius and Jesus as myths, man made and should be dropped as such eventually.
That’s why, both Dionysius and Jesus are literally out of the table, which represent their new world.
Who will be the head on this table or new world? .Once, in somewhere, if anyone recalls, someone said, no more Amen, while playing on words, Amen and A man, but he wasn’t advocating women, that’s for sure!!
He was advocating the end of God or as he thinks, gods.
This new world, contrarily to what someone may think, isn’t an Utopia. That’s not their end target initially. Look at the table and take your guesses..
These people feel free to attack the Christian religion because they can get away with it and actually become heroes to leftist progressives. They would never do this to the Muslim religion because of their fear of the personal consequences of their actions.
Christians don’t have to resort to decapitations to avoid being “toothless.” Rather respond by boycotting the Olympics and its sponsors. Low tv ratings would send a real message.
It is simple the Church as the body of Christ must do what he would. SPREAD THE TRUTH GOD DOESN’T MAKE MISTAKES. IF SOMETHING IS WRONG IT IS JUST WRONG,LET EVERYONE KNOW IT! Speak out from the Pope to the newest alter boy. God bless you all.
It seems unfair to the athletes and their entourage to boycott the entire games. The Closing Ceremonies and the sponsors seem to me to be more appropriate targets.
The third hidden secret message in this blasphemy is represented by the character whose genitalia are visible. Actually, since they intended to make it a deep clever mockery, which they can laugh at it for centuries to come, and to be a keystone mark of their victory against God, they expected that no one will notice it, as their focuses, if any, will be at maximum, at the controversy on Jesus/the fat woman thingy. Factually, till now, this is what’s happening.
Next close to the same character, is a child, and both characters represent the pedophilia to come. The marketing of this dark future, just like in Dionysius’ case, started years ago, in many platforms as well, under some irrational psychological excuses.
According to them, a pedophile is someone that should not be condemned but treated. Of course that’s not true, but the real end target is to legitimize pedophilia among the rest of their hidden agendas.
“Actually, since they intended to make it a deep clever mockery, which they can laugh at it for centuries to come, and to be a keystone mark of their victory against God, they expected that no one will notice it,…”
They are Legion.
My bishop is silent on deliberate insult.
The USCCB is silent, also.
The pope? Well, he chooses to remain very silent and a friend of Caesar. Bet on it.
Toothless? Had it been an offense committed by the ignorant and the poor, the toothless would have been gnashing their teeth in unison declaring sanctions of all sorts.
I offer this reflection of mine exclusively to the CWR, which has always kindly hosted me, as a sign of gratitude and hope. The USA is not as discouraging regarding faith as France (and Europe).
An Italian layman’s masterpiece has been ridiculed, and it will be a simple Italian layman who will avenge (and more importantly, pray for) the perpetrator. However, I won’t pretend to slay millennia-old metaphysical and moral relativist dragons in a single swing of my verbal sword.
Just as on the morning of May 21, 1972, Pentecost Sunday, László Tóth vandalized another masterpiece, foreshadowing the destruction of the natural law masterpiece by my political leaders through divorce and abortion, so does this blasphemous act presage the active persecution of neo-pagan Europe against Christians, and, perhaps worse of all, the neo-imperialist pagan forces, both old and new (Moscow, Beijing, Tehran), against Europe.
We are completely blind. We – as stated by peter Kreeft -” the modern West: a democratic, pluralistic, secular, scientific, technological, industrial, post-Enlightenment civilization. Geographically, that’s Europe and its former colonies. Theologically, that’s apostate Christendom.”
We do not understand the actors on the international scene and their dynamics. We are afraid to intervene and we lack the “hard” virtues, courage, foresight, moral absolutism. We have been incapable of thinking about the negative, the devil, since the time of Hegel.
For more than two centuries, European culture has caressed evil, flattered it, justified it. The negative communicates delirium of omnipotence, unspeakable emotions. It colors the peculiar titanism, the Promethean-pantheistic ideology that, from Romanticism onwards, has crossed European culture and has never left the scene. Behind this constant presence of Hegel, also the figure of Nietzsche (Dionysus, whom he contrasted with Christ), the philosopher of the will to power.
The real threat to Europe is precisely idealism, because from it comes the conviction of the necessity of evil. But the dialectic of the negative, contrary to what Hegel thought, never reaches the positive, God is not an accomplice of the devil, he is God.
But if you say this, immediately comes the discredit from the media, from political correctness, from hypocrisy (and cynicism) with a smile. The resistance to recognize the existence of evil is the same that causes the non-acceptance of Medjugorje.
Education has lost Christ, history, the existence of original sin, and the “master of the world”- as R.H.Benson called it. How do we explain the massacres of communism (violent egalitarianism), Nazism (the ideology of race), and affluent society (abortion)?
I invite the reader to take a fleeting eagle’s-eye view of the historical, philosophical-theological, and above all, biblical big picture. Let’s elevate our gaze, give a flap of our wings to our intelligence, to avoid being caught by hunters, and to avoid resembling materialists who, like ostriches, cannot fly, or idealists who, like chickens, make a few rare and clumsy flights.
There is a total lack of realism in public opinion and the ruling classes, a lack of St. Thomas Aquinas, archived along with the Oxford school, favoring English utilitarian empiricism, crude French radical Enlightenment, and arrogant, thougth gentle, German idealism.
We must choose between pride or humility, idealism or realism, the virus or the organism, reductionism or integrality, counterfeit or original, Dionysus or Christ, Marsilius of Padua or Dante, Descartes’ “I think” or Thomas’ “I exist,” Sartre/Beauvoir or Maritain/Raissa, Rahner/Hegel or Ratzinger/Augustine, Macron/Freemasonry/(cultural) Marxism or Meloni/Mariology/Meritocracy.
In a nutshell, it’s a déjà vu scene – Satan & Gnosticism & radical feminism & Will to Power vs. St. Joseph & Wisdom of the Cross & Church & Christ.