A LAY INITIATIVE FORMED TO DEFEND

CATHOLIC TEACHING ON THE FAMILY

Outrageous blasphemy committed at Olympic ceremony

Originally published by Catholic Action for Faith and Family on Sunday 28 July 2024.

By now you have undoubtedly heard of Friday’s obscene Olympic opening ceremony in Paris which featured every possible offense against the ancient Catholic faith, which has been the soul of the French nation since at least the conversion of Clovis in 508 AD. Clovis’s holy wife, St Clotilde, had already embraced the true faith and encouraged him to be baptized with all his people to extend the Kingdom of God on this earth.

There is a good reason why France is called the “Eldest Daughter of the Church”. Clovis and his people adopted the orthodox Catholic faith that was defined by the early Church councils, which opposed the heretical Arianism that had been spreading through the former Roman Empire at that time. 

From the moment Clovis was baptized, France became the bastion and fierce defender of the Catholic Faith. It’s not surprising that France’s two greatest kings, Charlemagne (800s) and King St Louis IX (1200s), were both warrior kings.

Nor is it surprising that France was, until the modern age, the breeding ground of every type of saint, from Martin of Tours to Joan of Arc to John Vianney to Therese of Lisieux and every possible expression of sanctity in between. The French alone have been responsible for dozens of religious orders that have evangelized major areas of our globe.

So, the title of this article is very precise: it wasn’t the French people who did this, let alone faithful Catholics, who had no part in this obscenity.

It was done by a group of radical French blasphemers — on the left — who committed this moral hate crime against Catholic France. And of course, not one of those satanic beasts had the courage to make similar displays against Islam or any other faith.

And let’s be clear: this was a deliberate provocation which was then broadcast to millions of people worldwide. That was part of their dark plan. 

Even if other peoples around the world didn’t understand the deliberate anti-Catholic nature of it, no one could have thought this was a normal display of art from the culture that built the Gothic cathedrals and brought French haute couture to the rest of the world in everything from food to fashion.

Interpreting the Symbols  

There was so much wrong with that display of filth on Friday night that it’s hard to summarize it all, so I will focus only on two elements that were highly, if not the most, offensive to Catholic, and all Christian, sensibilities. 

The Last Supper parody

The central drama of the “Drag Queen Last Supper” needs no interpretation at all. It will go down in history as one of the most outrageous public blasphemies of all time. I need only point out that the Last Supper was the institution and inauguration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

So, the parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper was actually a thinly-veiled attack on the Mass, the spiritual reality that the devil most hates in this world. 

The beheaded Marie Antoinette

Because Marie Antoinette was the most dramatic victim of the French Revolution, it would be easy to see the blood-covered figure of Marie Antoinette on stage singing while holding her severed head as a reference to secular French history. 

But that’s not what it was. 

It was, in fact, another satanic parody of the founding of the Catholic faith on French soil. It referred to an ancient legend that the saintly first bishop of Paris, St Denis, was martyred for the Catholic faith as early as 250 AD. He was beheaded. 

The legend goes on to tell how the holy martyred bishop, even after the fall of the axe, held his head in his hands and walked around for a good length of time preaching repentance to the people who had not yet accepted the Catholic faith. 

Why did they do this?

First of all, let’s admit that servants of the Evil One do not need reasons to blaspheme God and His Church. They only need opportunities, and the Paris Olympics afforded them the largest stage possible to inject their satanic blasphemy into the global consciousness. 

But there are probably several specific reasons why something like this happened, especially at this time:

  1. France’s recent elections put extreme leftist radicals in charge of the government. They are the progeny of the Jacobins of the French Revolution. Blasphemy and violence are always what result when atheists and blasphemers take political power.
  2. The newly-renovated Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is about to be reopened and displayed to the world, and the devil is furiously angry that one of the most potent and well-known symbols of Catholic culture — consecrated to Our Lady — is returning to its former glory. 
  3. Above all, France just changed their constitution to include a radical legalization of abortion on the level of our Roe v Wade. Nothing like that has ever been seen throughout the entire history of the Eldest Daughter of the Church. When you open such a Pandora’s Box of evil like abortion into your culture, you get the blood curse and all the demons that go with it.

Ultimately, the French people will have to address this wickedness and turn it back, or they can expect more evils to come. 

As for a truly spiritual response to spiritual evil, well, it’s going to take more than a few anemic statements of “disappointment” from random bishops here and there to rebuke this sacrilege. 

Still, we must give credit where credit is due, and we must thank the likes of Bishop Barron, Bishop Cozzens (of the National Eucharistic Congress), and the French Episcopal Conference for speaking out. I’m sure (I hope) there will be more statements from prelates to come. 

Above all, each one of us — members of the Church Militant — must be part of the global response to this wickedness. It was certainly a devastating offence against the French nation, but it was also, and primarily, an overt, in-your-face blasphemy against the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. 

I recall Our Lady of Fatima, during the apparitions, requesting acts of reparation from the people of God for the sins and sacrileges being committed throughout the world. So, I invite you to join me in turning to God, in face of this offense against Him, and offer some form of reparation for this sinful act.

And, like Charlemagne and St Louis IX and Joan of Arc of old, we stand ready to fight!

Republished with permission.

Thomas McKenna is president and founder of Catholic Action for Faith and Family.

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