(LifeSiteNews) — The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land has expressed support for an ecumenical statement that calls on those who carried out the blasphemous depiction of the Last Supper at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics to issue an apology for mocking the “the mystery of the mysteries in Christianity.”
“Christianity was the first to preserve freedoms, protect diversity, and preserve human dignity and rights. Therefore, we do not accept subjecting it to insult from some group,” the Middle East Council of Churches said in a statement July 27.
The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land is a confederation of Eastern Rite Churches in good standing with Rome. Approved in 1992 on an ad experimentum basis by Pope John Paul II, it was granted permanent legal status in November 2016 by the Congregation for Oriental Churches.
According to its website, the Assembly’s 27 members belong to the Latin Church, the Greek Melkite Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, and the Chaldean Catholic Church. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, serves as the organization’s chair. Normally, the group meets twice a year unless circumstances dictate extraordinary gatherings.
The Council’s statement states that the damage done by the blasphemous performance at the Olympics requires a public act of repentance by those who organized it.
“Respecting the freedoms of others, preserving their human dignity, and building sound relationships between humans require to rectify the mistake and offer a public and frank apology to all those whose feelings were hurt and whose sanctities were mocked around the world,” the statement reads.
The group also maintains that the ceremony could result in Christians being canceled even more in the future.
“Mocking the beliefs of others reveals a hidden tendency toward suppressing them, which may lead whoever commits it to practices that are not acceptable to the values of democracy.”
“Exploiting a global platform in this way means a decline in the global human-civilizational convergence to the lowest level in human relations,” it adds. “Hence it implies social behavior which leads to the emergence of the abolitionist and exclusionary tendency toward the other.”
A growing number of Catholic clergy have issued statements rebuking the opening ceremony. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò described it as “the latest in a long series of vile attacks on God, the Catholic Religion and natural Morality by the antichristic elite that holds Western countries hostage.” German Cardinal Gerhard Müller called it an “act of spiritual terrorism.”
Thus far, the Vatican has remained conspicuously silent on the affair. In a social media post on July 27, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia attempted to straddle both sides of the controversy by oddly claiming that it “reveals a profound question.” Paglia is the Pope Francis-appointed president of the scandal-plagued Pontifical Academy for Life, which previously opposed abortion and other moral evils but now speaks out on “social justice” topics.
Pope Francis has not made a statement on the matter, a fact that was noticed by Traditional Catholic actor Mel Gibson.
In a social media statement, Gibson said, “It’s telling that the Ayatollah in Iran condemns this disgusting offensive display & yet our apostate, schismatic excuse for a pope says nothing, but we know that the last 11 years is just Halloween for Jorge Bergoglio.”
Despite the near-universal blowback the Olympics has received for the ceremony, those who carried it out are not backing down.
Barbara Butch, the lesbian at the center of the performance, admitted on her Instagram account that she was purposefully trying to portray Jesus Christ, a claim that contradicts what organizers have said. Butch, who identifies as a proud “fat, Jewish, queer lesbian,” has also not expressed regret over her participation. Rather, she is now taking legal action for purported “abuse” she has received online.
Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s homosexual director, has likewise claimed that the performance was not trying to imitate the Last Supper but rather to depict pagan gods.
While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued a half-hearted apology to anyone who was “offended,” its statement has been condemned by many on social media as being insufficient.