LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Raymond Burke condemned the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics as “an unbelievable manifestation of the darkness and sin in our world.”
“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,” Burke stated in a homily delivered July 31.
“It is difficult to imagine anything more debased and blasphemous,” he said in reference to the infamous opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which shocked viewers across the globe on Friday. A caricature show, designed by the homosexual Thomas Jolly, saw drag queens and dancers perform a mockery of the Last Supper, particularly appearing to faux-imitate Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper painting.
Continuing his homily to mark the 16th anniversary of the dedication of his Wisconsin Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Burke said:
That such an act 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.’ (John 8:44)
He added that the “disgust and anger” felt by many – both Catholics and non-Catholics – over the LGBT mockery of the Last Supper “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.”
As the American cardinal often warns, he highlighted that the Catholic Church is not exempt from the effects of such an “open rebellion against God,” commenting:
In the Church, too, we witness the deliberate spread of confusion and error regarding the truths of our faith, the secularization of the Sacred Liturgy, and the lack of respect for the irreplaceable foundation of charity in the respect for justice and the rule of law.
A number of U.S. Catholic bishops have already called for prayers and fasting in light of the Olympic ceremony scandal, and Burke echoed such calls in his own assessment of the event.
“We must turn daily to Our Lord and seek from Him, through His Mother, the Mother of Divine Grace, the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit for the transformation of our lives and of whatever part of His vineyard Our Lord has entrusted to our care, beginning with our homes,” he counseled.
Drawing from Christ’s Scriptural command to “repent and believe in the Gospel,” Burke reiterated that Christ “speaks the truth to us and gives us the grace to live the truth.”
The 76-year-old prelate called on Catholics to adhere to the Tradition of the Church and to imitate St. Paul in being able to “fight the good fight, to stay the course, and to keep the faith.”
“Through the unbroken line of the Apostles and their successors, Christ is with us to heal and strengthen us for the battle against darkness and sin, the battle in which, in Him, we are the victors,” he urged.
In February, the cardinal announced a nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, running from March through December 12, in response to the “pressing crises of our age.” This endeavor he recommended to those present at the July 31 Mass, held at the shrine he established to Our Lady of Guadalupe, where he will make a solemn consecration on December 12.
“Conscious of the gravity of the darkness and sin which would defeat and destroy us, and equally conscious of the victory over darkness and sin which is ours in Our Lord Jesus Christ, I have invited Catholics throughout the world to make a nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, asking Her to bring us to Her Son Who alone is our salvation and to bring many, many more who are not yet alive in Him to know, love, and serve Him through the gift of faith and Baptism,” he said.
Burke has continued to invite people to join him in reciting the daily novena prayer, as well as making a pilgrimage to the Guadalupe Shrine in December for the solemn act of consecration he will make there.
His voice of protest against the Olympics ceremony is not isolated. Though the Holy See has officially been notably silent on the matter, the French Catholic bishops issued a collective condemnation of the event and have been joined by numerous U.S. bishops.
“The deplorable depiction of the Last Supper was not in any way artistic, but instead was a direct and blatant assault upon Christianity,” wrote Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska. “The Last Supper represents Jesus giving His Body and Blood for us in anticipation of His Crucifixion. It is one of the greatest acts of love in the history of the world. Never should it be mocked and treated in such a way.”
To this is added the declaration of Burke’s colleague in the college of cardinals, namely, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who attested that by the “sacrilegious and vulgar representation,” the Olympics body “has managed in one fell swoop to sully the noble face of the Olympics and to offend millions of believers around the world.”
But as growing numbers of bishops condemn last Friday’s events, the Holy See’s silence becomes noticed all the more.