The shambolic and strange scenes that marred the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games are reaching far beyond a shocked Catholic Church, and despite what mainstream media would like you to think.
So bad was the ceremony, Gavin Mortimer <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-filthy-seine-is-a-fitting-symbol-of-macrons-chaotic-olympics/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">writes</mark></a> for the <em>Spectator</em> – describing it as "more a French farce than an Olympic extravaganza" and "an interminable parade of wokery" – that it "achieved the remarkable feat of uniting” Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the left-wing New Popular Front alliance that achieved a narrow victory in the 2024 French legislative elections, and Marion Marechal, the right-wing politician who is Marine Le Pen’s niece.
Both of whom, Mortimer says, “one can safely say have never before agreed on anything” but when it came to digesting the opening ceremony, the two figures “expressed their distaste for the scene in which drag queens mocked the Last Supper, as did the Catholic church in France". <br><br>Maréchal, <a href="https://x.com/MarionMarechal/status/1816925819077296174"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">responded</mark></a> on <em>X</em> to the controversy: “To all the Christians of the world who are watching the #Paris2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation.”<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/very-odd-the-way-in-which-mainstream-media-reported-on-last-supper-parody-at-olympics/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Very odd: The way mainstream media ‘reported’ on Last Supper parody at Olympics</mark></a></strong><br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/mounting-catholic-pushback-against-olympic-games-opening-ceremony/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Mounting Catholic shock and pushback against Olympics’ ceremony</mark></a></strong>
Many of the French intelligentsia were also aggrieved at the ceremony, Mortimer notes, including the respected philosopher Alain Finkielkraut.
He described the ceremony as “conformist” and “decadent” – even worse than <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/an-exorcist-is-needed-to-sort-out-eurovision-2024-and-irelands-troubled-contestant/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">the Eurovision Song Contest</mark></a> – a grotesque spectacle lacking in “taste, grace, lightness, delicacy, elegance, beauty”.
The philosopher also noted the coinciding weather situation: “The deluge that befell the City of Light could only be divine punishment,” said Finkielkraut. “After that apocalyptic evening, I became a believer.”<br><br>That rain has caused further problems regarding the safety of the Seine River, which is meant to feature in the Olympic triathlon competition.
The Seine had been declared safe for swimming last week, Mortimer notes, but that was before the torrential downpour on the Friday of the opening ceremony impacted the river’s water quality by causing more sewage to flow into the river. Subsequent tests conducted on the water found its cleanliness could endanger the health of competitors, and the race has been postponed till later in the week.
Never a publication to miss a good headline, the <em>Spectator</em> titled Mortimer's article: “The filthy Seine is a fitting symbol of Macron’s chaotic Olympics".
Catholics may well be nodding whole heartedly with that editorial choice of words, and also feel some sort of divine justice is at play in everything that has befallen the Paris Olympic Games – there was also a massive problem with the French train network that impacted about 1 million passengers – or even a touch of Schadenfreude.
Though Miles Patterson, a medieval historian and researcher at Deakin University <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/miles-pattenden-olympics-last-supper-controversy-christians/104161102"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">writing</mark></a> for Australian media <em>ABC</em>'s Religion and Ethics section, cautions against such a reaction. He says “the speed with which certain elements of the Christian community are embracing politicised victimhood is an unwelcoming development for Christianity’s place in the public sphere in Western societies".
It represents, he says, "a marked departure from the attitude that previous generations of Christian martyrs – <em>real</em> victims, if you will – glorified at a time Christianity truly was imperilled. To put it bluntly: Christians should be more wary about joining the self-pity parade.”
He also argues that Christians needn't get so caught up in worrying about the bizarre spectacle of the Last Supper parody, and that it may prove useful in a way, explaining: “we may well have arrived at a moment when the particular constellation of beliefs associated with such banal identity intersectionalism collapses under the weight of its own internal contradictions, as well as the sheer conformism of those who seek to enforce its marginal agendas". <br><br>He adds: “Self-confident churches build bridges with their enemies and competitors, turning them into allies." One of Pope Francis’s"<br><br>Turning the focus to Pope France in that bridge-building context, Patterson says one of this pontiff's "key achievements has arguably been his promulgation of carefully calibrated statements about different minority groups on the Catholic Church’s margins. He tests opinion, stresses solidarity, and tries to identify points of consensus."
Patterson concludes: "We all ought to be more wary of joining in races to be the most offended, for being able to bear suffering and public mockery earns more respect and is more consistent with living out worthwhile ideals.”
Other Catholics, however, such as Bishop Robert Barron, <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/bishop-barron-slams-gross-mockery-of-last-supper-and-christian-faith-during-olympic-games-opening-ceremony/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">who has been particularly vocal about what happened in Paris</mark></a>, are making a stand over the point that the sort of anti-Christian culture that facilitated the parody in Paris and the attendant "gross mockery" of the Christian Faith has gone on unchecked long enough. And by having such a clear run, along with Christians meekly standing by, this attitude and surrounding culture has become too brazen and disturbing, and hence Catholics must now speak out, Barron says.
And for those that do speak out it seems that, unlike what usually happens when Catholics take on the status quo and mainstream culture, their voices will be joined by non-Catholics agreeing that there was something very off kilter about what was demonstrated in Paris. <br><br>"The heartbreaking thing about so many people being horrified by the Olympics opening ceremony and thus switching off from the games, is that the athletes themselves had nothing to do with any of it," the renowned US journalist and feminist author Naomi Wolf, who comes from a Jewish background, <a href="https://x.com/naomirwolf/status/1818097885465940456"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">said</mark></a> in a message on X.
"Their incredible hard work is being battered by self-absorbed artistes and louche Satanists."<br><br><em>Photo: Smoke in the colours resembling the flag of Team France is released over Pont d’Austerlitz during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Paris, France, 26 July 2024. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images.)</em>
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