Church leaders and a few conservative politicians condemned the efficiency as a perversion of the scene, recounted within the Bible, on the eve of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Saturday known as the efficiency a “mockery [that] was stunning and insulting to Christian folks around the globe.” A U.S. telecommunications agency, C Spire, mentioned it was pulling its promoting from the Summer season Video games. The French Convention of Catholic Bishops additionally objected.
Within the Gospel accounts of the Final Supper, Jesus shares bread and wine along with his disciples and instructs them to eat and drink in his reminiscence — the idea for the Eucharist, or Communion, the central ritual in Christian worship.
Organizers apologized throughout the Video games’ each day information convention on Sunday.
“Clearly there was by no means an intention to point out disrespect to any non secular group,” spokeswoman Anne Descamps advised reporters. “If folks have taken any offense we’re, after all, actually, actually sorry.”
On Friday, shortly after the efficiency, the Olympics posted images of the blue man on X. “The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us conscious of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” the publish reads.
It doesn’t point out the Final Supper, and a few on social media insisted that the efficiency depicted a Dionysian feast.
“The thought was to do a giant pagan get together linked to the gods of Olympus,” Opening Ceremonies choreographer Thomas Jolly advised the Paris-based BFM community on Sunday, in line with France 24. “You’ll by no means discover in my work any want to mock or denigrate anybody.”
However organizers reportedly acknowledged Sunday that Jolly “took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s well-known portray to create the setting.”
“[Jolly] shouldn’t be the primary artist to make a reference to what’s a world-famous murals,” Paris 2024 mentioned in a press release to The Wrap. “From Andy Warhol to ‘The Simpsons,’ many have carried out it earlier than him.”