Viral Catholic leader: Christians must not be ‘weak’ in the face of Olympics opening spectacle

Prominent Catholic leader and evangelist Bishop Robert Barron rebuked the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Paris this week for "mocking this very central moment in Christianity." 

Barron, the head of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and viral Catholic influencer, posted a video to X Friday lamenting the startling display of drag queens posing as Christ and his apostles at the Last Supper that was part of the opening ceremony of the summer games in the French capital.

"What do I see but this gross mockery of the Last Supper," Barron told his more than 285 thousand X followers on Friday.

Barron told Fox News Digital that the spectacle of the drag queen "Last Supper" performance was a sign Christians in the West were becoming too passive and "weak." 

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Bishop Robert Barron, head of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, condemned the blasphemous Last Supper display featured at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris. (Word on Fire Ministries)

The controversial display featured numerous performers, including drag queens and a large woman in a halo crown, parodying "The Last Supper," a universally recognizable painting by renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci of Christ and his apostles on the night of Passover before Christ’s passion and death. 

The image sparked outrage among Christians and conservatives online, one of them being Barron, who expressed disappointment that a country with such Catholic heritage would mock such an important event from the Gospels.

"France felt evidently, as it’s trying to put its best cultural foot forward, the right thing to do is to mock this very central moment in Christianity, where Jesus at His Last Supper gives His body and blood in anticipation of the cross. And so it’s presented though as this gross sort of flippant mockery," he said.

The bishop, who recently spoke at a major Catholic conference on the Body and Blood of Christ in the sacrament of Holy Communion, continued, noting how the display is so contrary to France’s Catholic history. 

"France, which used to be called the eldest daughter of the church, Paris, that gave us – Thomas Aquinas taught there, and Vincent De Paul was there, and King Louis IX – St. Louis. France has sent Catholic missionaries all over the world."

Driving home the point, he added, "France, whose culture – and I mean the honoring of the individual, of human rights, of freedom – is grounded very much in Christianity, felt the right thing to do is mock the Christian faith."

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A view of the Eiffel Tower with the Olympics rings pictured with national flags of competing countries from the Place du Trocadero ahead of Paris 2024 Olympic Games  on July 21, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kevin Voigt/GettyImages)

Bishop Barron suggested the left is being open about how they are opponents of Christianity, saying, "I think, folks, what’s interesting here is this deeply secularist, postmodern society knows who its enemy is. They’re naming it. And we should believe them."

He then urged Catholics and Christians to now cower or stay meek in the face of such anti-Christian bigotry, adding, "We Christians, we Catholics should not be sheepish, we should resist, we should make our voices heard."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Barron instructed Christians on how they can push back on this antagonism, stating, "Christians should always resist evil, and I think we have indeed become too weak in the face of our cultural antagonists. Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek is by no means equivalent to passivity, as is evident in the work of Martin Luther King." 

"King used non-violent means to interrupt forms of wickedness that had embedded themselves into our society. Turning the other cheek and going the extra mile are practical strategies for mirroring a person’s injustice back to him so that he might stop what he is doing and repent," he said.

Barron continued, noting, "We should follow the example of King in his battle for justice:  call evil out, name it for what it is, make its negativity known, and endeavor to get in its way." He also stressed how effective social media can be in fighting evil, saying, "I do believe that today the social media give us a means to accomplish all of these ends.  This is why I used my own platforms to resist what was going on in Paris – and I think it was pretty effective."

Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.