Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron described a statement from the organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics, apologizing for an LGBTQ parody of the “Last Supper” during the opening ceremony, as “anything but an apology.”
In a video posted to X, Barron criticized an apology from the organizers of the Olympics regarding a mocking LGBTQ parody of the “Last Supper” that featured Barbara Butch, a DJ, producer, and LGBTQ activist in the middle, while drag queens and transgender performers were seen on either side of her. Barron said the Olympics organizer’s “so-called apology” was “patronizing” and “condescending” towards Christians and unapologetic about the actual offense committed against them.
The bishop’s video came after he previously posted a video on X, criticizing the drag queen parody of the “Last Supper” as being a “gross, sort of flippant mockery” of the faith of Christians around the world.
“I saw the so-called, apology from the organizing committee, and I thought, ‘It’s anything but an apology,'” Barron said in his video. “In fact, it’s kind of a masterpiece of woke duplicity.”
Barron added that he “wanted to say a few things” in response to the apology, adding that if the organizers thought the apology would “mollify Christians” they should “think again.”
“Here’s some of the things that were said,” Barron continued, reading as he quoted directly from the Olympic organizers’ statement. “‘Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,’ give me a break. So, we have a group of drag queens cavorting in a kind of sexually provocative way. Clearly, an imitation of da Vinci’s Last Supper.”
Anne Descamps, a spokesperson for the 2024 Paris Olympics had said in a statement that there was “never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” and that they had tried to “celebrate community tolerance.”
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” Descamps said in the statement. “On the contrary, I think [with] Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance. Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
Barron continued to criticize the apology, “I love this, ‘We tried to celebrate community tolerance.’ Yeah, tolerance. Except, for those pesky 2.6 billion Christians on the planet, everyone’s welcome, everyone’s tolerated. All this lovely diversity, until you get to anyone that disagrees with your ideology, like these 2.6 billion people. So, don’t give me this business about tolerance and diversity.”
“And then, ‘We believe this ambition celebrating tolerance was achieved,'” Barron added. “Well, I wonder what planet they’re living on if they think harmony and peace and all this was achieved by this clear affront to Christians. And, then at the very end, a standard bit of condescension, ‘If people have taken any offense, we’re truly sorry.’ In other words, if you’re so simple-minded and stupid to have been offended by this wonderful expression of French culture, well, you know, we’re sorry about that.”
The bishop added that Christians were offended by the display “because it was offensive.”
“Please don’t patronize us with this condescending remark about well, ‘If you had any bad feelings, we’re awfully sorry about that,'” Barron added.
Barron encouraged Christians to not give up and to continue to make their voices heard. “A real apology would be something like, ‘This was a mistake, it should never have been done, and we’re sorry for it,'” Barron said, adding that Christians should not be mollified, but “should keep raising” their voices.
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