A Bacolod priest said the tableau that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” during the July 26 opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics was a “mockery of the Catholic faith, especially of the Eucharist.”
“We cannot just be silent about it,” Fr. Chris Gonzales, Triumph of the Holy Cross parish priest in Barangay Estefania, Bacolod, said on Tuesday, July 30.
He called on Catholics to pray “for the Olympics’ organizers and for the whole world to open our eyes and see the truth that Satan is really at work, it is the work of the devil.”
Gonzales called on all Christians to defend the faith and to pray for conversion.
At the same time Gonzales aired support for the athletes at the Paris Olympics.
“We are praying for our athletes and for everybody,” he said.
The Paris Olympics organizers have apologized to anyone who was offended by a tableau, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
“Da Vinci’s painting depicts the moment when Jesus Christ declared that an apostle would betray him. The scene during Friday’s ceremony featured DJ and producer Barbara Butch — an LGBTQ+ icon — flanked by drag artists and dancers,” the AP report said.
Religious conservatives from around the world have decried the tableau.
“The ceremony’s artistic director Thomas Jolly had distanced his scene from any ‘Last Supper’ parallels after the ceremony, saying it was meant to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to feasting and French gastronomy,” the AP report said.*