The backlash from the Paris Olympic Games continues to rage on as Christians around the world refuse to stand for the apparent mockery of the faith that was seen in the opening ceremony. Recently, Cardinal Raymond Burke of the Roman Catholic Church publicly condemned the display as “debased and blasphemous” while labeling it the “theater of Satan.”
During one of the performances at the opening ceremony, one scene appeared to imitate the famous “Last Supper” painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which depicted the final meal Jesus Christ shared with his apostles before being crucified and eventually resurrected. Except at the Paris Olympics, there was an eerily similar display, only with a woman seemingly in the place of Jesus while surrounded by drag queens.
“On this past Friday, we witnessed an unbelievable manifestation of the darkness and sin in our world: the abominable mockery of the Holy Eucharist at its Institution for the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris,” the Cardinal stated. “It is difficult to imagine anything more debased and blasphemous.”
Cardinal Burke continued, “That such an event could take place shows us, in a most painful way, how what was once a Christian culture has become the theater of Satan and those who cooperate with his thoroughly evil plans, the plans of ‘a murderer from the beginning’ who ‘has nothing to do with the truth,’ the plans of ‘a liar and the father of lies.’”
The Catholic leader further condemned the blasphemy against God, saying, “Our disgust and anger about what happened at the Summer Olympics awakens anew our consciousness of so many other manifestations of the open rebellion against God and His plan for our salvation in the world in which we live: attacks on human life and its cradle in the family created by the marriage of a man and a woman, and attacks on religion itself and its free exercise.”
The Christian Tribune also reported on commentary from another prominent Catholic leader, Bishop Robert Barron, who called for Christians to be strong and defend their faith amid the apparent mockery at the Olympic Games.
Barron highlighted that is particularly saddening to see the display given the Christian history in France. “And so as presented, though, is this gross sort of flippant mockery France, which used to be called the eldest daughter of the church parish that gave us Thomas Aquinas taught there, and Vincent de Paul was there. King Louis, the ninth 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 and freedom is grounded very much in Christianity,” he said.
The Bishop asked a rhetorical question as to whether Paris would dare mock Islam in a similar manner. “You know, a question I would pose, we all know the answer to it. Would they ever have dared mock Islam in a similar way? Would they ever dreamed of mocking in this, in this gross, you know, public way, a scene from the from the Quran,” he said.
“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,” Barron concluded. Watch him below:
Featured image credit: Goat_Girl, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cardinal_Burke_in_april_2015.jpg