Cardinal Raymond Burke / Alison Girone (Left), Olympic Logo in front of the Hôtel de Ville de Paris by Florence Piot / stock.adobe.com (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // Cardinal Raymond Burke this week denounced the Olympic Opening Ceremony scene featuring a group of people in “drag” appearing to parody the Last Supper, stating that “[i]t is difficult to imagine anything more debased and blasphemous.”
Cardinal Burke mentioned the Opening Ceremony scene in his homily for a Mass celebrating the 16th anniversary of the dedication of the church at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on July 31.
“On this past Friday,” Cardinal Burke said, “we witnessed an unbelievable manifestation of the darkness and sin in our world: the abominable mockery of the Holy Eucharist at its Institution for the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris. It is difficult to imagine anything more debased and blasphemous.”
On July 26, the Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris, France, sparked outrage from Catholics, non-Catholic Christians, and others around the globe after the Ceremony included a display, put on by a group of people wearing “drag,” that appeared to parody Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Last Supper” painting.
The scene’s choreographer, Thomas Jolly, has denied the allegation and said of the display, “The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus,” according to news outlet France 24. However, experts in the field of religion and religious art, as well as many others, have noted the apparent similarities in the Opening Ceremony scene that appear to parody the Last Supper.
The fact that such a display occurred, said Cardinal Burke in his homily, illustrates “in a most painful way, how what was once a Christian culture has become the theater of Satan and those who cooperate with his thoroughly evil plans, the plans of ‘a murderer from the beginning’ who ‘has nothing to do with the truth,’ the plans of ‘a liar and the father of lies.’”
Catholics’ reaction of “disgust and anger” to the Opening Ceremony display “awakens anew our consciousness of so many other manifestations of the open rebellion against God and His plan for our salvation in the world in which we live,” Cardinal Burke continued, citing attacks on religion and human life, freedom of religion, and attacks on marriage and family.
He added, “In the Church, too, we witness the deliberate spread of confusion and error regarding the truths of our faith, the secularization of the Sacred Liturgy, and the lack of respect for the irreplaceable foundation of charity in the respect for justice and the rule of law.”
Cardinal Burke said that it is crucial to respond by turning to Jesus and, through the intercession of Jesus’ mother Mary, seek the gift of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. He also recalled that Jesus promised to always remain with His Church and that Jesus gives the faithful “the grace to live the truth.”
“Through the unbroken line of the Apostles and their Successors, Christ is with us to heal and strengthen us for the battle against darkness and sin, the battle in which, in Him, we are the victors,” Cardinal Burke said: “It only remains for us, in the words of Saint Paul, to fight the good fight, to stay the course, and to keep the Faith.”
He also encouraged praying the nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for the conversion of many souls throughout the world. The novena will end in December.
The novena petitions Our Lady of Guadalupe “to bring us to her Son Who alone is our salvation and to bring many, many more who are not yet alive in Him to know, love, and serve Him through the gift of faith and Baptism,” Cardinal Burke said, emphasizing that “it is never too late to join” those who are praying the novena.
