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CV NEWS FEED // According to a breaking news report from Catholic News Agency, a group of Catholic cardinals and bishops from around the world have penned an open letter calling for the International Olympics Committee to apologize after the Olympics Opening Ceremony featured a group of people in “drag” appearing to parody the Last Supper.
“With shock the world watched as the summer Olympics in Paris opened with a grotesque and blasphemous depiction of the Last Supper. It is hard to understand how the faith of over 2 billion people can be so casually and intentionally blasphemed,” reads the letter, which has been signed by Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa, Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel of Ethiopia, and 24 bishops and archbishops.
Those bishops and archbishops include Archbishop Emeritus Héctor Rubén Aguer from Argentina; Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama from Nigeria; Archbishop Emeritus Juan Antonio Ugarte Pérez from Peru; Bishop David Arthur Waller from England; and Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
“We, Catholic bishops from around the world, on behalf of Christians everywhere, demand that the Olympic Committee repudiate this blasphemous action and apologize to all people of faith,” the signatories state in the letter.
On July 26, the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics featured a display, put on by people wearing “drag,” that appeared to parody Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the “Last Supper,” CatholicVote previously reported:
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 bishops and cardinals stated in the recent letter, “While it is hard to believe that such an intentionally hateful mockery of any other religion would be displayed on the world stage, this despicable action nonetheless threatens people of all faiths and of none, as it opens the door to those with power doing whatever they wish to people they do not like.”
The signatories also stated that they will spend a day in fasting and prayer in reparation for the display. They will each also offer Mass.
“The Last Supper was the meal that Jesus of Nazareth shared with his closest friends the night before he died for them, and for us,” the letter concluded: “We pray that those who seek to harm others with their power, and those harmed, will imitate his self-sacrificial love, so that peace, decency and mutual respect may be restored in the world.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, during a July 28 press conference, Paris Olympics organizer spokeswoman Anne Descamps said, “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance.”
“Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved,” Descamps said. “If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said in a video on his X account that Descamps’s statement was “anything but an apology.”
“In fact, it’s kind of a masterpiece of woke duplicity. If they felt this is meant to mollify Christians, I would think again,” Bishop Barron said, later adding, “A real apology would be something like: ‘this was a mistake, it should have never been done and we are sorry for it.’ I don’t think Christians should be mollified. I think we should keep raising our voices.”
