Recently, Paris was impacted by a “technical anomaly” that left a substantial portion of the city in a prolonged period of darkness just one night after the controversial opening ceremony performances that sparked backlash from Christians around the world. However, the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre (Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre), one of the holiest sites in the entirety of Catholicism and Christianity, shined on as if a divine statement.
Around midnight on Saturday night, tens of thousands of Parisians lost power. Due to the massive scale of the outage, there was initial speculation that it was the product of intentional sabotage. However, the energy company responsible for the provision of power explained that it was caused by a “technical anomaly.”
Several prominent Christian figures commented on the event. Bishop J. Strickland commented on X about the irony of the predicament, writing, “The irony of an electrical power outage in Paris in the wake of the blasphemous & debauched opening ceremonies of the Olympics should be noted. The evil on display mocks God’s power and then the city is left powerless. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus guide us in His powerful Light.”
Furthermore, Sr. Mary Joseph Calore commented, “God Is In Control. Just twenty four hours after the opening olympic debauchery in Paris they get a blackout – the only lights that could be seen were on the Basilica Of The Sacred Heart Of Jesus – Sacré-Cœur Basilica located at the summit of the butte of Montmartre. From its dome two hundred meters above the Seine, the basilica overlooks the entire city of Paris and its suburbs.”
In the aftermath of the opening ceremony, the Paris Olympics faced intense scrutiny from outspoken Christians from around the world. Catholic Bishop Robert Barron went viral on social media after he called for Christians to not to be “weak,” urging followers of Christ to be bold and defend their faith.
“So I come from that experience, and I come home, and, you know, I love the Olympics, so I turn on the opening ceremonies the Olympics. What do I see now?” he said before slamming the “gross mockery” that he saw when turning on the event with the hopes of enjoying sports content. He continued, “But this 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, his last supper gives his body and blood in anticipation of the cross.”
The bishop further called for Christians not to be “sheepish” and to stand up to those who mock our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. “As I say, we all know the answer. 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. They’re they’re telling us who they are. We should believe them. But furthermore, we Christians, we Catholics, should not be sheepish. We should resist. We should make our voices heard,” he said.
Watch Bishop Barron’s message for Christians around the world below:
!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src=”https://rumble.com/embedJS/u1jj1ge”+(arguments[1].video?’.’+arguments[1].video:”)+”/?url=”+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+”&args=”+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, “script”, “Rumble”);
Rumble(“play”, {“video”:”v56pl85″,”div”:”rumble_v56pl85″});
Featured image credit: Taxiarchos228, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_-_Sacr%C3%A9-C%C5%93ur.jpg