Olympic and faith leaders seek reset after opening ceremony outcry, while chaplains welcome athletes
The 2024 Paris Games got off to a rocky start with many religious groups around the world, including the Vatican over a tableau in the opening ceremony perceived by some as evoking Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
PARIS (AP) — Faith leaders gathered with Olympic officials Sunday morning in front of Notre Dame Cathedral to celebrate how “faith and sport can complement each other,” in the words of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
The 2024 Paris Games got off to a rocky start with many religious groups around the world, including the Vatican. They criticized a scene in the opening ceremony seen as mocking Christianity by evoking “The Last Supper” and featuring drag queens, though the performers and the ceremony's artistic director denied being inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's painting.
“We wanted to show that the most important thing is peace,” Catholic Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard said at the gathering. It was modeled after the first such interfaith meeting, organized by modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin in the 1924 Paris Games.
Far from the controversy, in an inconspicuous tent-like structure tucked away at the end of the athletes’ village in Paris, ordained and lay representatives from the five major global religions have taken up that mantle, providing spiritual comfort to Olympians.
