Catholic leaders have slammed the widely condemned Paris Olympics display as “vile and blasphemous.”
Roman Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke has become the latest public figure to condemn the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics for parodying the Christian faith with a performance that many interpreted as mocking Jesus and his disciples in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting “The Last Supper.”
In the exhibition, Drag Queen Glamorous performers lined one side of a long table, while a person wearing a halo crown posed in the center. News media “France 24” The scene’s choreographer, Thomas Joly, has denied claims that he was trying to mock Christianity and instead depict “a pagan party intertwined with the Olympian gods,” but many art and religion experts are not convinced.
CatholicVote reports It was made clear Wednesday that Cardinal Burke was referring to the scene at the opening ceremony in his homily at a Mass celebrating the 16th anniversary of the church’s dedication on July 31 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
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Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke attended the Congregation of Cardinals, a meeting of Pope Francis to select new cardinals, at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. (Franco O’Riglia/Getty Images)
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“Last Friday we witnessed an incredible manifestation of the darkness and sin in this world: the abhorrent mockery of Holy Communion instituted at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris,” the cardinal said. “It is difficult to imagine anything more depraved and blasphemous.”
He further declared: “That such an event could occur demonstrates in a poignant way how what was once a Christian culture has become a theater for Satan and his collaborators in his thoroughly evil designs — designs that ‘have nothing to do with the truth,’ that ‘was murderous from the beginning,’ and that ‘is a liar and the father of lies.'”
Delegates arrive at the Trocadero as a crowd watches French singer Philippe Catherine perform on a giant screen during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via The Associated Press)
Three drag queen torchbearers appear along the Paris Olympic torch relay route
He argued that such displays express a belief that there is an ongoing struggle over morality within our civilization.
“Our disgust and anger at what happened at the Summer Olympics arouses anew our consciousness of the many manifestations of blatant rebellion against God and His plan of salvation in the world in which we live — an attack on human life and its cradle, the family created in the marriage of a man and a woman, and an attack on religion itself and the free exercise of it.”
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Fox News’ Gabriel Hayes contributed to this report.
