Paris 2024 Olympic Organiser, Anne Descamps has apologised to the Catholics and other Christian groups for any offence caused by religious depictions of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting with drag queens, a transgender model and a singer made up as the Greek god of wine.
The parody of the biblical scene, performed against the backdrop of the River Seine, was intended to interpret Dionysus and raise awareness “of the absurdity of violence between human beings”, organisers explained on X.
The committee was forced to apologise after the performance caused outrage among Catholics, Christian groups, and conservative politicians around the world.
In a press conference on Sunday, Descamps apologised for any offence caused and insisted that the ceremony intended to ‘celebrate community tolerance’.
‘Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,’ she said. On the contrary, I think Thomas Jolly did try to intend to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved, if people have taken any offence, we of course are really sorry.’
The International Olympic Committee later said in a statement: ‘The IOC has taken note of and welcomes the clarification given by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee regarding the Opening Ceremony.
‘In the daily press briefing, the Organising Committee said that there was never any intention to show disrespect towards any religious group or belief.
‘They reiterated that their intention with the Opening Ceremony was always to celebrate community and tolerance. The Organising Committee also said that if anyone was offended by certain scenes, this was completely unintentional and they were sorry.’
Sunday’s apology came after thousands of social media users threatened to boycott the Paris Games because of the opening ceremony.
