U.S. and Global Leaders Criticize Paris Olympics for Mocking Last Supper

(DailyVantage.com) – Organizers of the Paris Summer Olympics apologized last weekend after facing blowback over the opening ceremony tableau that depicted a drag queen version of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper.”

The iconic da Vinci painting depicts Jesus Christ at the center of the table surrounded on either side by his apostles at the moment he told them that one would betray him.

The opening ceremony reenactment featured LGBT personality Barbara Butch as “Jesus,” surrounded on either side by drag queens.

The tableau outraged Christians worldwide who decried the segment as sacrilegious and disrespectful of the faith held by many of the countries competing at the Olympic games.

The French Conference of Catholic bishops decried the display as a derisive mockery of Christianity. The Egyptian Anglican Communion said the opening ceremony tableau could cause the International Olympic Committee to “lose its distinctive sporting identity” and “humanitarian message.”

Opening ceremony Artistic Director Thomas Jolly defended the drag queen Last Supper in a press conference last Saturday, claiming to be unaware of the blowback.

Jolly claimed that the display was not intended to be “subversive,” arguing that the message was one of “inclusion” and “diversity.” He said the goal was to “include everyone.”

The artistic director defensively argued that France has “freedom of creation” and insisted that he was not trying to deliver “any specific messages” with the sacrilegious tableau.

Jolly added that in France, people “have the right to love whom we want” and insisted that he sought to convey the message that the French people have “a lot of rights,” including “the right not to be worshippers.”

Paris Olympics spokeswoman Anne Descamps told reporters that it had never been the intention of the group to disrespect any religious group. She claimed that Thomas Jolly’s opening ceremony sought to “celebrate community tolerance.”

Descamps apologized to anyone who may have been offended by the tableau.

Jolly said in an interview after the opening ceremony that it was not his intention to “mock” or “shock” but to “send a message of love” and “inclusion.”