The sacrament of sacrilege

Many people were understandably horrified when the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics included sacrilegious mockery of our Lord’s Last Supper.

Perhaps you saw it: the scene was obviously blasphemous, and was taken as a grave insult by Christians all over the world. Why, many people wondered, would the organisers of the Olympic Games want to offend so many people?

‘I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide’, said Thomas Jolly, the artistic director. This, however, seems to be stretching credulity rather too far, along with the frankly absurd claim that resemblance to Da Vinci’s Last Supper was accidental. It was deliberate, as initial responses from the organisers admitted, and as was immediately obvious to anyone watching. And it is inconceivable that the organisers didn’t realise that many Christians would be deeply upset by this; nor can they have imagined that Christians would feel ‘included’ by it. Something rather more profound was going on.