France: A Look Back at the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games (1)

One of these tableaux, titled “Festivity,” showed, on a bridge over the Seine, drag queens—men dressed as women—accompanied by dancers, on either side of a DJ, Leslie Barbara Butch, LGBTQ+ activist, wearing a haloed crown. Clearly, even to the most naive of eyes, it was a transgender parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Christ’s Last Supper with His disciples.

Reactions were prompt. Many voices were outraged by a “woke,” “vulgar” ceremony, a “grotesque staging,” amounting to “blasphemy” or “sacrilege.” The France TV website made no secret of it by captioning the photograph of this parody: Une mise en Cène LE-GEN-DAIRE [Editor’s note: a wordplay merging the French words for “Staging” and “Last Supper,” claiming the scene was “LEGENDARY”], before removing it, in the face of public outcry.

Television stations in some countries, such as the United States and Morocco, censored some portions of this worldwide broadcast, like that of a nude dancer lying down in front of the haloed DJ. On social networks, many offended priests called for bishops to react.

The recording of this opening ceremony has been removed from the YouTube channel of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The recordings of the opening ceremonies of London 2012, Rio 2016, or Tokyo 2021 are still available, but not that of Paris 2024 [Editor’s note: in the United States, videos of the full opening ceremonies from multiple years are still available on the Olympics YouTube channel]. France TV offers a selection of scenes from the July 26 ceremony, but the one of drag queens parodying Christ’s Last Supper is not included.

The telecommunications company C Spire, the sixth-largest wireless service provider in the United States, decided to remove all advertisements in its name from the Paris Olympic Games: “We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics.”

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, immediately provided his support for this decision: “I am proud to see the private sector in Mississippi step up and put their foot down. God will not be mocked. C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line.”

Bishops Deplore “Some Derisive Scenes” in a Marvelous Ceremony

On July 27, the bishops of France published a communiqué, cosigned by the organizers of the Holy Games, which is the Catholic Church’s program to reconcile sport and faith, under the motto: “The Gospel is sport!”

We can read in this, without any mention of the blasphemous parody: “Last night's opening ceremony, organized by the French COJOP, offered the world a marvelous display of beauty and joy, rich in emotion and universally acclaimed. This ceremony unfortunately included scenes of mockery and derision of Christianity, which we deeply regret.” And the bishops added:

“This morning, we are thinking of all the Christians on every continent who have been hurt by the outrageousness and provocation of certain scenes. We want them to understand that the Olympic celebration goes far beyond the ideological biases of a few artists. 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.”

The very soothing tone of this communiqué, which was unable to explicitly denounce a blasphemous farce, hurt many Catholics on social networks. But it is true that this text was in line with what Pope Francis wrote in his letter to the Archbishop of Paris, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich, on June 27, on the occasion of the Paris Olympic Games:

“I hope that the organization of these Games will provide all the people of France with a wonderful opportunity for fraternal harmony, enabling them to transcend differences and oppositions and to strengthen the unity of the Nation. [...] Sport is a universal language that transcends borders, languages, races, nationalities and religions; it has the capacity to unite people, to encourage dialogue and mutual acceptance.”—Athletic Irenicism, Olympic ecumenism, such are the values of the “synodal” Church, in Paris as in Rome.

The Society of Saint Pius X Prays in Reparation for Blasphemy

Fortunately, not all ecclesiastical reactions were so soporific. In the United States, several bishops immediately made their strong opposition known:

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco: “Secular fundamentalism has now infiltrated the Olympics, even to the point of blaspheming the religion of over a billion people. Would they do that with any other religion?”

Bishop Donald Hying, Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin: “In reparation for the blasphemy in Paris, let’s fast and pray, renew our devotion to the Eucharist, the Sacred Heart and the Virgin Mary. May Jesus be adored and loved in every tabernacle throughout the world. Thank you Lord for the Eucharist and the Last Supper, your love for us.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland, former Bishop of Tyler, Texas: “The bigotry toward Christians and the blasphemy of Jesus Christ, God’s Divine Son on display at the Olympics is a new low for our human community. Shame on those who produced this mockery, shame on the Olympic Committee and the nation of France for allowing it. This tarnishes what should be the noble celebration of sport and competition. I urge the athletes not to run for the fading crown of worldly acclaim, instead run for the crown that does not fade, eternal life in Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God.”

Bishop Robert Barron, Bishop of Winona-Rochester: “We should resist. We should make our voices heard.”

On Sunday, July 28, Fr. Benoît de Jorna, District Superior of France for the Society of Saint Pius X, had this call to prayers of reparation read at each Mass in all priories: “No one can ignore the opening ‘ceremony’ of the 2024 Olympic Games.

“The entire world saw it and millions of spectators were able to witness the blasphemous parody of the Last Supper. It is impossible to remain indifferent or passive faced with this new attack on the rights of Our Lord, true God and true Man. Unfortunately, the Church no longer has the power to repress such outrages.

“Nevertheless, our Catholic Faith must prompt us to deeply deplore this blasphemous farce, all the more grave because it was orchestrated to be seen by the entire world. This outrage organized by public authorities is a scandal for a very great number of souls.

“With Pius XI, every Christian affirms that the leaders of civil society must remember ‘the last judgment, wherein Christ, who has been cast out of public life, despised, neglected and ignored, will most severely avenge these insults; for his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles’ (Encyclical Quas Primas, 1925).

“Our prayers must beg divine mercy to spare our country a chastisement that is nevertheless deserved. And to make reparation for such a detestable blasphemy, our offering will be the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at which we assist, this infinite satisfaction that the divine Priest offered to His Father.”

At the end of each Mass, the Psalm De profundis was recited, followed by the invocation Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo: ne in æternum irascaris nobis.