Church leaders say an apology issued by the organising committee of the Paris Olympics over a tableau depicting Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting, doesn’t go far enough.
The scene, which was broadcast to millions of people as part of Friday evening’s opening ceremony, included drag queens and a transgender model sitting at a long table in the same formation as the famous painting. It caused outrage among Christians and church leaders worldwide.
Responding to the backlash, Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told a press conference: “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.”
However, US Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, who was one of the first to criticise the portrayal said the apology wasn’t good enough. In a video on social media he said:
“This is anything but an apology. It’s a masterpiece of woke duplicity.
“If they felt this was a moment to mollify Christians then I would think again. They talk about ‘tolerance, everyone’s welcomed, everyone’s tolerated’, until you get to anyone who disagrees with your ideology – like the 2.6 billion Christians on the planet.
“Christians were offended because it was offensive and it was intended to be offensive, so please don’t patronise us.
“A real apology would be that ‘this was a mistake and it should never have been done.’ Christians shouldn’t be mollified by this and we should keep raising our voices.”
The General Secretary of Churches Together in England, Bishop Mike Royal also criticised the apology saying it was half-hearted. He told Premier that people of many Christian denominations had been offended by the scene:
“I felt it was inappropriate and distasteful and that’s shared by a number of people across different traditions, Orthodox, Catholic, Pentecostal, evangelical. So ecumenically It needed to be called out.
“Whether they meant to cause offence or not, truth be told it did cause offence.
“And to be honest, I've seen the apology and it's really a half apology, it's kind of ‘sorry, if you're offended.’
“There needs to be a recognition that offence was caused and could have been avoided.”