'Words cannot describe it': Bishop urges 'renewed zeal' in face of 'heinous' Last Supper mockery at Olympics

Smoke billows near windows as performers participate in the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. / Credit: BERNAT ARMANGUE/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Jul 28, 2024 / 10:51 am (CNA).

Crookston Bishop Andrew Cozzens this weekend slammed what he described as the “heinous” mockery of the Christian faith displayed at the Summer Olympics in Paris on Friday, urging Catholics to respond to the spectacle with fasting and prayer.

The drag queen-led parody of the Last Supper featured during Friday’s opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics sparked a wave of incensed reactions and denunciations from Catholic leaders and others around the world.

The controversial scene, part of the 1.5 billion euros (about $1.62 billion) spectacle to kick off the Olympic Games, featured drag queens portraying the apostles and an overweight DJ as Jesus in what appeared to be a part of a fashion show apparently mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting.

In a statement on Saturday, Cozzens—who also serves as the chairman of the board of the National Eucharistic Congress—said the performers “publicly defamed” the Last Supper with the “evil” display.

Cozzens noted that at the National Eucharistic Congress this month, the faithful gathered to “make reparation for our sins” and pray for “healing and forgiveness.”

Yet a week later, he noted, nearly a billion spectators in person and via telecast “witnessed the public mockery of the Mass,” in which the Last Supper “was depicted in heinous fashion, leaving us in such shock, sorrow and righteous anger that words cannot describe it.”

The bishop said that throughout history Christ has “called us—the people of God—to respond to the darkness of evil with the light that comes from the Lord.” Cozzens pointed out that the Last Supper, along with the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ, form the Paschal Mystery.

“Jesus experienced his Passion anew Friday night in Paris when his Last Supper was publicly defamed,” the bishop said. “As his living body, we are invited to enter into this moment of passion with him, this moment of public shame, mockery, and persecution. We do this through prayer and fasting. And our greatest prayer—in season and out of season—is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”

Cozzens urged the faithful to attend Mass this week with “renewed zeal,” to “pray for healing and forgiveness for all those who participated in this mockery,” and to “commit ourselves this week to greater prayer and fasting in reparation for this sin.”

He further suggested attending Mass more than once in the coming week and considering an extra Holy Hour.

“We may also be called upon to speak about this evil. Let us do so with love and charity, but also with firmness,” the bishop said. He urged Catholics to “ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us with the virtue of fortitude.”

“France and the entire world are saved by the love poured out through the Mass, which came to us through the Last Supper,” he wrote. “Inspired by the many martyrs who shed their blood to witness to the truth of the Mass, we will not stand aside and quietly abide as the world mocks our greatest gift from the Lord Jesus.”