CNA Staff

By CNA Staff

CNA Newsroom, Aug 2, 2024 / 09:00 am

In a strongly worded open letter, Catholic cardinals and bishops from around the world are calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to “repudiate” and “apologize” for the “intentionally hateful mockery” of the Last Supperduring the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

In addition, “the undersigned commit to a day of prayer and fasting in reparation for this blasphemy.” 

The letter was signed by three cardinals and 24 bishops as of Friday, Aug. 2, and states: “With shock, the world watched as the Summer Olympics in Paris opened with a grotesque and blasphemous depiction of the Last Supper.”

“It is hard to understand how the faith of over 2 billion people can be so casually and intentionally blasphemed,” say the prelates, who include Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke; Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, OFM; and Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, CM.

While 15 of the 24 signatories are from the U.S. — including Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver; Archbishop Emeritus Charles Chaput, OFM Cap, of Philadelphia; Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco; Archbishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska; and Archbishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota — bishops from Argentina, France, Ghana, Lebanon, Nigeria, Peru, and the United Kingdom also signed the letter.

The prelates demand that the IOC “repudiate this blasphemous action and apologize to all people of faith,” warning that the display “threatens people of all faiths and of none, as it opens the door to those with power doing whatever they wish to people they do not like.”

The letter’s organizers provided an email address — episcopimundi2022@gmail.com — that other bishops can use to add their names to the document.