Paris Olympics organisers apologise to Christians for Last Supper parody

Paris 2024 organisers have apologised to Catholics and other Christian groups angered by a kitsch tableau in the Olympic Games opening ceremony that parodied Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting.

The segment, which resembled the biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his apostles sharing a last meal before his crucifixion and featured drag queens and a singer made up as the Greek god of wine, Dionysus, drew dismay from the Catholic church and the religious right in US.

“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance,” the Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps told a press conference. “We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence we are really sorry.”

France has a rich Catholic heritage but also has a long tradition of secularism and anti-clericalism. Blasphemy is legal and considered by many to be an essential pillar of freedom of speech. Supporters of the tableau praised its message of inclusivity and tolerance.

The Catholic church in France said it deplored a ceremony that “included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity”.

Monsignor Emmanuel Gobilliard, a delegate of the bishops of France for the Games, said some French athletes had had trouble sleeping because of the fallout from the controversy.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the highest-ranking Catholic official in Malta and an official for the Vatican’s powerful doctrinal office, said he had contacted France’s ambassador to Valletta to complain about the “gratuitous insult”.

In a message to the ambassador shared on X, he wrote: “I would like to express my distress and great disappointment at the insult to us Christians during the opening ceremony … when a group of drag artists parodied the Last Supper of Jesus.”

Some commentators said the controversy was another example of 21st-century culture wars turbocharged by a 24-hour news cycle and social media.

Thomas Jolly, the artistic director behind the flamboyant opening ceremony, said religious subversion had never been his intention. “We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that,” he said on Saturday.