Catholics criticise ‘mockery’ of Christianity at Olympics - but there’s one small problem

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games has officially begun, and with Friday night’s opening ceremony involving upside down flags, a headless Marie Antoinette, inclement weather and a dramatic performance featuring drag queens, social media is alive with memes and reactions – including a statement from French Catholics expressing disapproval with one scene in particular.

Conférence des Évêques de France - or in English, the Bishops’ Conference of France – released a statement on Saturday in which they said the event contained “scenes of derision and mockery” of Christianity which they “deeply deplore”.

They’re referring to the aforementioned performance involving drag queens, in which a person painted completely in blue rested on a floral plate on a long rectangular table – a scene which many have said is a take on ‘The Last Supper’ (involving Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples, famously painted by Leonardo da Vinci).

Except, it isn’t.

The official Twitter/X account for the Olympic Games instead states it’s an “interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus” designed to make us “aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings”.

And even American Catholics are unhappy with the scene, with Bishop Robert Barron – the Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota – describing it as a “gross mockery of The Last Supper” and calling on Catholics to “make our voices heard”:

The ceremony has been criticised by right-wingers, too, who have branded it “satanic”.

Andrew Tate, the controversial internet personality, has announced he is “boycotting the Olympics” and will be protesting at Romania’s French embassy on Sunday.

In a video posted to Twitter/X on Saturday, he fumed: “One of the most sacred images throughout all of Western civilisation, The Last Supper, they mocked it.

“We need people to stand up and stop taking this s*** … They mock Christians because they’re endlessly weak, endlessly forgiving.

“There’s going to be a point in the future, when we look back at history – if the world still exists – and they’re going to say, ‘what were the Christians doing to save Christian civilisation during that period … when they were endlessly mocked by the people who were supposedly in charge of them?’

“And when you find out the answer was forgiving, jerking off to porn, and f***ing sitting around and ‘we’re going to be all right later on’, there’s going to be a long, long history lecture about how they should have f***ing stood up and done something.”

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