As nearly everyone has seen by now, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics featured an obscene tableau mocking Christianity with a paganized rendering of Leonardo DaVinci’s “The Last Supper” featuring hyper-sexualized transgender performers imitating Jesus and the apostles. As if to leave no doubt about their perversity, the scene even included a child.
Amid an international public outcry from Christians, the organizers tried to remove all video footage of the segment online, and a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee issued a weak non-apology over the weekend, saying “there was never any intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief,” that “their intention with the Opening Ceremony was always to celebrate community and tolerance,” and that “if anyone was offended by certain scenes, this was completely unintentional and they were sorry.”
No intention to offend? The segment was titled “La Cène sur la scene sur la seine” (The Last Supper on the stage on the Seine). So it was obviously meant to be a sexualized mockery of the Last Supper, as anyone who witnessed the spectacle could easily see. As Bishop Robert Barron said in response to the statement, “Christians were offended because it was offensive, and it was intended to be offensive.” Quite right.
Even if you didn’t see the thing, the drag queens who participated were quite open about what they believed they were doing. Barbara Butch, the French LGBT activist who played the role of what she called “Olympic Jesus” in the revolting scene, also called it the “New Gay Testament” on
