CV NEWS FEED // The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land (ACOHL) has issued a statement condemning the controversial opening of the Olympic games in Paris and requesting a “frank” apology.
“With a lot of love mixed with astonishment and disapproval,” wrote the ACOHL in a July 27 statement, “we saw what happened during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in France, the mockery of the mystery of the mysteries in Christianity, and what is sacred to billions of people around the world.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the Olympic Games opening ceremony included a drag performance that appeared to mock the Last Supper.
“Freedom, diversity, and creativity are not compatible with insulting the beliefs of others,” the ACOHL stated, adding that what transpired at the opening ceremony “indicates complete ignorance of the concepts of freedom and human dignity.”
“This is a very worrying matter for the future of humanity,” the statement continued, “because exploiting a global platform in this way means a decline in the global human-civilizational convergence to the lowest level in human relations, and consequently the absence of acceptance of diversity in life.”
The ACOHL further called for the Committee to make “frank apology” to “all those whose feelings were hurt and whose sanctities were mocked around the world.”
The Paris 2024 Organising Committee has since issued an apology statement, claiming “that there was never any intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief.”
Catholic bishops across the US, including Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Bishop Robert Barron, have also taken to social media to condemn the performance.
In his most recent video regarding the issue, Bishop Barron fired back at the Committee’s statement, which he said was not an apology, but rather “a masterpiece of woke duplicity.”
