Paris 2024 organisers apologised on Sunday to Catholics and other Christian groups angered by a kitsch tableau in the Olympic Games opening ceremony that parodied Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ painting.
The segment, which resembled the biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his apostles sharing a last meal before crucifixion and featured drag queens, a transgender model and a naked singer made up as the Greek god of wine Dionysus, drew dismay from the Catholic Church and the religious right in the United States.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance,” Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps told a press conference.
“We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.”
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France, while proud of its rich Catholic heritage, also has a long tradition of secularism and anticlericalism. Blasphemy is not only legal, but also considered by many as an essential pillar of freedom of speech.
Supporters of the tableau praised its message of inclusivity and tolerance.
The Catholic Church in France said it deplored a ceremony that “included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity”.
Some French athletes had trouble sleeping because of the fallout from the controversy, said Monsignor Emmanuel Gobilliard, delegate of the bishops of France for the Games.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the highest ranking Catholic official in Malta and an official for the Vatican’s powerful doctrinal office, said he had contacted France’s ambassador to Malta to complain about the “gratuitous insult”.
In a message to the ambassador shared on X he wrote: “I would like to express my distress and great disappointment at the insult to us Christians during the opening ceremony ... when a group of drag artists parodied the Last Supper of Jesus”
Some commentators said the controversy was another example of 21st century culture wars turbocharged by a 24-hour news cycle and social media.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director and mastermind behind the flamboyant opening ceremony, said religious subversion had never been his intention.
“We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that,” he told reporters on Saturday. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann and Julien Pretot; Additional reporting by Thomas Escritt in Berlin and Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose in Paris; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar)
