Indignation at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris continues to grow after its organisers saw fit to lampoon the Last Supper in a hyper-sexualised manner with drag queens. <br><br>The ceremony on 26 July, during which the involvement of drag queens appeared to be a recurring theme, featured a sketch where a group of drag queens and a notably rotund woman wearing an aureole halo crown posed themselves at a table in a style parodying the iconic image of Christ and his apostles at the Last Supper.
The French Bishops Conference <a href="https://eglise.catholique.fr/espace-presse/communiques-de-presse/554020-reaction-de-la-conference-des-eveques-de-france-et-holy-games-au-sujet-de-la-ceremonie-douverture-des-jeux-olympiques-de-paris-2024/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">released a statement</mark></a> saying that while the ceremony “offered the world a marvelous display of beauty and joy, rich in emotion and universally acclaimed”, it also “unfortunately included scenes of mockery and derision of Christianity, which we deeply regret".
"We are thinking of all the Christians on every continent who have been hurt by the outrageousness and provocation of certain scenes”, the bishops say, adding that “we want them to understand that the Olympic celebration goes far beyond the ideological biases of a few artists".<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/not-clever-not-funny-just-crass/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Not clever; not funny; just crass</mark></a></strong>
Leading figures in the Catholic Church took to social media to express their sorrow at what occurred, with some also placing it in a wider and concerning context.
“Secular fundamentalism has now infiltrated the Olympics, even to the point of blaspheming the religion of over a billion people,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco <a href="https://x.com/ArchCordileone/status/1817081826659488038"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">stated</mark></a> on <em>X</em>. “Would they do that with any other religion? I ask all of our people to pray for a restoration of good will and respect.”
Bishop Charles Jude Scicluna, the Archbishop of Malta, also posted a message <a href="https://x.com/BishopScicluna/status/1817209795071365306"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">stating</mark></a> that he has contacted the French Ambassador to Malta express “my distress and the disappointment of many Christians at the gratuitous insult to the Eucharist during the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.” He encouraged others to message the ambassador.<br><br>Bishop Robert Barron, one of the biggest and most well known Catholic voices in the US, released a two-minute video on social media <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">decrying</mark></a> the “gross mockery” of the Christian Faith that occurred during the ceremony.
“This deeply secularist, post-modern society knows who its enemy is; they’re naming it and we should believe them, they are telling us who it is,” Barron says, adding: “Catholics must not be sheepish” and need to “resist” and to make their voices heard.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <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">Bishop Barron slams ‘gross mockery’ of Last Supper and Christian Faith during Olympic Games opening ceremony</mark></a></strong>
Christian groups in the UK have called for an immediate apology from the organisers of the Olympic Games.
“Christians across the world are outraged at the deliberately blasphemous parody of the Leonardo da Vinci painting, <em>The Last Supper</em>, seen in the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Paris,” states a press release from the Christian activist organisation Voice for Justice UK.
“The offensive tableau was performed by a group of over made-up and be-sequinned drag queens, and was an open expression of contempt for Christianity.”
The statement notes that sport is “rightly lauded as a universal language that transcends borders, uniting people from different backgrounds and cultures" but goes on to say that the Games’ organisers have "apparently decided to abandon the goal of respectful competition, in order to exploit the Games as leverage to, quote, ‘make society more inclusive’.”
Voice for Justice UK adds: “As part of this drive, drag queens have been a recurring theme, with three drag queens amongst the torch bearers carrying the Olympic torch on its journey from Greece to Paris, and assorted drag artists included throughout the opening ceremony; culminating in the obscene mockery of the portrayal of the Last Supper.
“This is not acceptable. Yet again, the word ‘inclusive’ is used to justify behaviour that is overtly <em>exclusive</em>. Such mockery is a deliberate attack on the person of Jesus Christ and a direct challenge to the faith that underpins, and lies at the heart of, Western society.”
The Voice for Justice UK statement also notes the implicit bigotry against women that was involved.
“The cultural appropriation of men impersonating women is already grossly offensive and insulting to women, but the deliberate mockery of Christ takes this abuse to new depths,” says Lynda Rose, CEO of Voice for Justice UK<em>. “</em>Christianity has been directly and deliberately targeted.”
She adds that the opening ceremony “wasn’t a celebration of sport, but of corruption, with ‘Inclusivity’ revealed in all its glory as a new religion".
The statement also quotes Helena Croft, CEO of StreetLightUK, an organisation working with women impacted by prostitution, who states that the “hyper-sexualisation that seems to be a hallmark of trans-activism has no place in sport”.
The Voice for Justice UK statement concludes: “By abusing their position as custodians of a world sporting event and sanctioning the insult to Christianity in their support for ‘inclusivity’, the organisers of the 2024 Olympic Games reveal not just their contempt for Christian belief, but the profound intolerance and bigotry that lies at the heart of their expressed aim to make society more ‘inclusive’.”<br><br>The artistic director of the Olympics' opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly, has tried to diffuse the situation, stating that "our subject was not to be subversive" and "we never wanted to be subversive", <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/tech-company-pulls-olympics-advertising-after-opening-ceremony-display-many-deem-anti-christian"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> <em>Fox News</em>. <br><br>He added: "We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that. In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country."
The President of the Paris Olympic Games, Tony Estanguet, also addressed the controversy caused by the opening ceremony.<br><br>"We imagined a ceremony to show our values and our principles, so we gave a very committed message," Estanguet said. "The idea was to really trigger a reflection. We wanted to have a message as strong as possible."
He also noted that "it is a French ceremony for the French games" and "so we trusted our artistic director", adding: "We have freedom of expression in France, and we wanted to protect it." <br><br>The statement from the French bishops finishes by trying to bring the focus back to what the Olympics should be about:
“Sport is a wonderful human activity that deeply delights the hearts of athletes and spectators alike. Olympism is a movement at the service of this reality of human unity and fraternity. Now it’s time to take to the field, and may it bring truth, consolation and joy to all.”
<strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/god-is-not-mocked-harrison-butker-weighs-in-on-last-supper-controversy-at-olympics-ceremony/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">‘God is not mocked’: Harrison Butker weighs in on Last Supper controversy at Olympics</mark></a></strong><br><br><strong>VIDEO</strong>: <em>Dr Gavin Ashenden on the Paris 2024 Olympic opening ceremony and what it tells us about the state of the Church in Europe and about the people in authority who run Europe</em>:
<em>Photo: The Olympic flag was borne to the Trocadero Stadium during the opening ceremony by a mysterious horsewoman (the silvery figure between the two French horse guards) wearing the flag as a cape on her back, Paris, France, 26 July 2024. (Photo by Xu Chang - Pool/Getty Images.)</em>
