‘Give Me a Break’: Bishop Barron Calls Out Apology by Olympics’ Committee As Disingenuous

I'm not a big fan of Bishop Barron, but in this case he's spot on! 'I'm sorry IF you were offended' is NOT an apology! It's simply saying 'normal people were not offended. I'm sorry that you were.'

From the Catholic Herald

By Elise Ann Allen/Crux

Prominent US Catholic cleric Bishop Robert Barron along with other Catholic leaders and commentators say the attempt by the organising committee of the Paris Olympic Games to apologise for the controversy during its opening ceremony does not go far enough and fails to make amends for offence given to Christians – as well as non-Christians – around the world.

Paris 2024 Olympics Committee spokesperson Anne Descamps has said that “clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group”, in response to the outcry over a performance during the ceremony where a group of drag queens, a transgender model and a rotund woman wearing an aureole halo crown posed themselves at a table in a style parodying the iconic image of Christ and his apostles at the Last Supper.

In a 28 July video published on social media platform X, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and founder of the popular Word on Fire ministry, criticised the apology.

Barron, who had previously published a video condemning the Last Supper parody, noted that after his first video he had no intention of returning to the topic, but now felt he had to as the words offered by Descamps and the committee were “anything but an apology”.

RELATED: Olympics’ organisers offer half apology over Last Supper controversy

“In fact, it’s kind of a masterpiece of woke duplicity…If they felt this is meant to mollify Christians, I would think again,” he said.

Pointing to Descamps’ assertion that they did not intend to offend any religious group, Barron said: “Give me a break.”

“We have a group of drag queens cavorting in a sexually provocative way clearly in imitation of Da Vinci’s Last Supper, which presents to the world the Last Supper of Jesus, and no disrespect was meant? Do you think anyone takes that seriously?” the bishop said.

He also took issue with the statement that the intention was to celebrate community and tolerance, highlighting: “except for those pesky 2.6 billion Christians on the planet”.

He added: “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.”

Referring to Descamps’ point that the committee’s goal of “celebrating tolerance was achieved”, Barron asked rhetorically, “I wonder what planet they’re living on if they think that harmony and peace and all this was achieved by this clear affront to Christians”.

Barron also condemned the wording of the apology as condescending, saying the tone does not read as apologetic, but rather suggests that “if you’re so simple minded and stupid to have been offended by this wonderful expression of French culture, well, we’re sorry about that”.

He counters: “Christians were offended because it was offensive. And it was intended to be offensive. So please don’t patronise us with this condescending remark of, ‘well, if you had any bad feelings, we’re awfully sorry about that’.”

The committee’s offering, he says, will do little to satisfy Christians who were offended by the performance, explaining: “A real apology would be something like, ‘this was a mistake, it should never have been done, we’re sorry for it’.”

“I don’t think Christians should be mollified, I think we should keep raising our voices,” he adds.

Representatives of the Paris 2024 Olympics Committee have insisted that their intention was to foster inclusion and celebrate diversity during the opening ceremony.

Committee spokesperson Anne Descamps was asked about the opening ceremony and subsequent outcry during an International Olympic Committee news conference on 28 July.

In addition to her claim that “clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group”, she added: “On the contrary, I think [along 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 any offence we are, of course, really, really sorry.”

Jolly, the ceremony’s artistic director, in his own remarks to the Associated Press about the event, said it was meant to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to French gastronomy.

“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” he said, adding: “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”

The attempts at apologies and explanations follow a wave of backlash that has not just come from Catholics and other Christians, but even from atheists and members of other faith groups, following the 26 July opening ceremony for the Games, which featured a group of scantily clad men in drag dancing provocatively while parodying the Last Supper.

At one point, the genitalia of a man wearing short black hotpants was exposed, while a young girl stood in front of him beside a long table that also doubled up as a cat walk.

Catholic leaders from around the world, including the French bishops conference and two Vatican officials, condemned the scene; with at least one, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, making a formal complaint to the French ambassador to Malta, and encouraging others to do the same.

Some commentators in the wake of the controversy have claimed that the performance was meant to be evocative of the feast of Dionysus, rather than the Last Supper, as a nod to the Greek roots of the Olympic games.

But this has been debunked by some of the very artists who performed in the sketch, who confirmed the performance was a parody of the Last Supper.

RELATED: Drag queen confirms it was a parody of Last Supper despite Olympic committee’s claim