Catholic Priest Condemns Olympics Opening Ceremony Mocking Christianity

The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics got off to a controversial start on Friday evening thanks to a disastrous, offensive recreation of the famous "Last Supper" painting. That painting, depicting Christ's last supper before being crucified, was represented by a number of drag queens and other gaudily made-up figures representing Christ and his apostles.

The depiction was met with overwhelming outcry about its portrayal of one of Christianity's most iconic and important images. Including from Chiefs' kicker Harrison Butker.

READ: Harrison Butker Slams Christians Being Mocked During Olympics Opening Ceremony

And one Catholic leader is speaking out about what it means, and what should be done about it.

Bishop Robert Barron, the head of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and a popular Catholic figure, posted a video on X Friday evening giving his thoughts on what transpired at the Opening Ceremony. In it, he condemned the organizers for "mocking this very central moment in Christianity." 

"What do I see but this gross mockery of the Last Supper," Barron said. That's exactly what.

PARIS - Celine Dion performs under the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower during the Opening Ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games along the Seine River on July 26. Photo: Andrew P. Scott-USA TODAY Sports

Catholics, Others, Horrified By Offensive Ceremony Performance

As Barron said, it was a devastating representation of France and its culture on a global stage. Especially considering the country's long connection and history with Catholicism. 

"France felt evidently, as it’s trying to put its best cultural foot forward, the right thing to do is to mock this very central moment in Christianity, where Jesus at His Last Supper gives His body and blood in anticipation of the cross. And so it’s presented though as this gross sort of flippant mockery," he said.

"France, which used to be called the eldest daughter of the church, Paris, that gave us – Thomas Aquinas taught there, and Vincent De Paul was there, and King Louis IX – St. Louis. France has sent Catholic missionaries all over the world."

"France, whose culture – and I mean the honoring of the individual, of human rights, of freedom – is grounded very much in Christianity, felt the right thing to do is mock the Christian faith."

"I think, folks, what’s interesting here is this deeply secularist, postmodern society knows who its enemy is. They’re naming it. And we should believe them."

Sounds like the Dodgers and their drag nuns. 

Barron has a point. The choreographers and organizers of this event and that specific performance feel comfortable mocking Christianity because they know there will be no consequences for it. They detest what Christianity represents, while celebrating an identity and ideology that demonizes anything outside of obsessive individual indulgence. 

If Islam was targeted with this type of offensive extremism, there'd be universal outcry and condemnation. But the Olympics would never target Islam, because the only boundaries they feel like pushing are the easy ones.