Religious depictions of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” painting with contemporary ideological figures during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics are clearly offensive to Christianity, said Nigerian Catholic Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo in a statement on Tuesday.
Describing the depictions as shocking and disrespectful, the Bishop of Oyo pointed out that ”sadly it is a perpetration of deliberate ongoing attempts in Europe and America to repurpose and cheapen Christian themes without regard for peace loving Christians who practice and profess their religion in peace”.
He added: ”That this decadent caricature of one of the most cherished events of Christianity is publicized in France, a country with a rich and old Christian heritage, and at the Olympic games detracts from the status of the Olympics and belies all claims to enduring civility and respect for freedom of religion in the West”.
He called on Christians to ”exercise their right of outrage and boycott to the extent that the damage already caused can be mitigated and redressed and future occurrences prevented”.
The bishop urged sport governing bodies and organisations to take full responsibility for accommodating ”such insulting, tasteless art and expressions that can potentially cause further hurt and division in our already hurting and fractured world”.
According to him, restraint must be observed to stop others disrespecting or thrashing religious symbols and sentiments which touch people at their deepest levels because doing this ”throws our humanising and spiritual values and ideals to the dogs”.
It is not clear whether the top brass of the Catholic Church share Bishop Badejo’s position.
The organisers of the Paris Olympics whose opening ceremony took place in the French capital last Friday have not commented.
WN/as/APA