(LifeSiteNews) — Catholic bishops across the world, including Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, condemned the blasphemous mockery of the Last Supper at the 2024 Olympics in the strongest terms, calling it “heinous” and a “vile attack on God.”
“The opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games have given scandal, not only because of the arrogant display of the ugly and the obscene, but because of the infernal subversion of Good and Evil, the insane claim to be able to blaspheme and desecrate everything, even what is most sacred, in the name of an ideology of death, ugliness, and lies that defies Christ and scandalizes those who recognize Him as Lord and God,” Viganò wrote in a statement he posted to X.
The archbishop further stressed that the mockery was an offense first and foremost to God, and a “vile attack” on Him: “Tolerance cannot be the alibi for the systematic destruction of Christian society … This prevarication must end! And it must end not so much and not only because it hurts the sensibilities of believers, but because it offends the Majesty of God.”
Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chairman of the board of the National Eucharistic Congress, lamented the brazen parody of the Last Supper in an email to attendees of the National Eucharistic Congress shared to X on Saturday.
“During the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics, the famous DaVinci Masterpiece The Last Supper was depicted in heinous fashion, leaving us in such shock, sorrow and righteous anger that words cannot describe it,” Cozzens wrote.
He highlighted the fact that even amid such evil, God brings forth good, and quoted Scripture in this regard: “Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.” (Rom 5:20)
“Jesus experienced his Passion anew Friday night in Paris when his Last Supper was publicly defamed. As his living body, we are invited to enter into this moment of passion with him, this moment of public shame, mockery, and persecution,” continued Bishop Cozzens, adding that “We do this through prayer and fasting.”
“And our greatest prayer — in season and out of season — is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As the Church throughout the world gathers tomorrow at the Lord’s Altar, let us do so with renewed zeal. Let us pray for healing and forgiveness for all those who participated in this mockery.”
“Let us commit ourselves this week to greater prayer and fasting in reparation for this sin. Perhaps you could attend Mass once more this week or do an extra holy hour?”
On Sunday, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City weighed in on X, saying ‘I am saddened and sickened by the deplorable mockery of the Last Supper which was part of the Opening Ceremony at the Paris Olympics. It was a blatant attack on the Catholic Mass which we hold so sacred.’
Bishop José Ignacio Munilla of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain observed that the ceremony is a sign that “Our culture is taking its last breaths in the midst of woke decadence” in a kind of spiritual “suicide.”
Bishop John Keenan of the Diocese of Paisley in Scotland penned a reflection on the grotesque spectacle in which he observed:
These central mysteries of our Christian faith were ridiculed by an ideology that thinks it can become the new religion of a secular Europe on the back of disfiguring its Christian roots. And yet, in choosing the Holy Mass as the heart of its global ceremony, this new ideology paradoxically manifested how the Eucharist is always the reference point of every human endeavour, whether to build up or tear down, to create or overthrow.
Bishop Robert Barron of Diocese of Rochester, Minnesota called the Olympics display a “gross, flippant mockery of the Christian faith.”
“To see drag queens cavorting in imitation of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, how can Christians not construe that as a slap?” Bishop Barron told Fox News on Saturday. “I was shaking my head as I heard some of the reporting … all of this emphasis on ‘inclusivity.’ Yeah, I guess everyone’s included except for Christians. They can be mocked and marginalized and made fun of all you want.”