Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. / Credit: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images; Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2024 / 16:22 pm (CNA).
Top government officials in Iran and Turkey, along with other Muslim religious figures, are speaking out against the drag-queen-led parody of the Last Supper at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony that shocked Christians and others across the world.
The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned the “insults” against Jesus Christ, noting that Jesus is a respected figure in Islam.
“Respect for #JesusChrist … is an indisputable, definite matter for Muslims,” Khamenei said in a post on X. “We condemn these insults directed at the holy figures of divine religions, including Jesus Christ,” added the supreme leader of Iran since 1989.
Turkish President Recep Tayyi Erdoğan also spoke out against the ceremony, saying he intended to call Pope Francis at the earliest opportunity to discuss the “immorality committed against the Christian world.”
The “disgraceful scene in Paris offended not only the Catholic world, not only the Christian world, but also us as much as them,” Erdoğan said during an address in the country’s capital of Ankara.
“Immorality displayed at the opening of the Paris Olympics once again highlighted the scale of the threat we face,” he added.
Muslims do not recognize the divinity of Jesus but do reverence him as a prophet.
The top institution of the Sunni branch of Islam in Egypt also issued a statement condemning the Olympic ceremony portrayal.
“The scenes portray Jesus Christ,” the Al-Azhar statement read, “in an offensive image that involves disrespect to his person.”
“Al-Azhar, and nearly 2 billion Muslims behind it, believe that Jesus … is the Messenger of Allah. The Quran reads, Jesus is Allah’s ‘Word through Mary and a spirit from him.’”
The Muslim Council of Elders, under the chairmanship of Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, also issued a denunciation of the opening ceremony.
“This disgraceful act showed a complete lack of respect for the beliefs of religious people and the high moral values they hold dear,” the statement read. “The council unequivocally rejects all attempts to demean religious symbols, beliefs, and sacred figures.”
Christian as well as other leaders worldwide have spoken out against Friday’s opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The world’s wealthiest individual, Elon Musk, called the scene “extremely disrespectful to Christians.”
The controversial show, part of the 1.5-billion-euro (about $1.62 billion) spectacle to kick off the Olympic Games, featured drag queens portraying the apostles and an overweight DJ as Jesus in what appeared to be a part of a fashion show apparently mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper.
Anne Descamps, spokesperson for the Paris Olympics, defended the opening ceremonies, saying “there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group.”
She said the goal of the opening ceremony was to “celebrate community tolerance.”
“We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are really sorry,” Descamps added.
Bishop Robert Barron panned Descamps’ statement as “anything but an apology.”
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies on her nomination to become an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 22, 2022. / Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP … […]
Anna Lulis from Moneta, Virginia, (left) who works for the pro-life group Students for Life of America, stands beside an abortion rights demonstrator outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022, after the court’s decision in the Dobbs abortion case was announced. / Katie Yoder/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 5, 2022 / 13:31 pm (CNA).
U.S. Catholic voters are split on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, but a majority agrees that abortion should be restricted and that there should be at least some protections for the unborn child in the womb, according to a new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll.
The court’s June 24 ruling in the Mississippi abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization upended 49 years of nationwide legalized abortion and freed states to regulate abortion as they see fit.
When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with Roe being overturned, 46.2% agreed, 47.8% disagreed, and 6% said they weren’t sure.
Catholic voters were similarly split on whether they are more or less likely to support a candidate who agrees with Roe’s dismantling: 42% said they were more likely, 41.9% said they were less likely, and 16.1% were unsure.
At the same time, the poll results point to apparent inconsistencies in Catholic voters’ positions on abortion.
While nearly half of Catholic voters in the poll said they disagreed with Roe being overturned, a large majority (86.5%) said they support some kind of limit on abortion, even though Roe and related abortion cases allowed only narrow regulation at the state level. The breakdown is as follows:
26.8% said abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother;
19.8% said abortion should be allowed until 15 weeks when the baby can feel pain;
13.1% said that abortion should be allowed only during the first six months of pregnancy;
9.9% said that abortion should be allowed only until a heartbeat can be detected, and
9.1% said that abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother.
Of special note for Catholic pro-life leaders, only a small minority of Catholic voters — 7.8% — were aligned with the clear and consistent teaching of the Catholic Church that abortion should never be allowed.
On the other end of the spectrum of abortion views, 13.4% of Catholic voters said that abortion should be available to a woman at any time during her pregnancy.
The poll, conducted by the Trafalgar Group from Sept. 12–19, surveyed 1,581 Catholic voters and has a margin of error of 2.5%. The questionnaire was administered using a mix of six different methods, including phone calls, text messages, and email.
The poll’s results echo surveys of the general U.S. population on abortion. A Pew Research Center survey from March found that 19% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all cases, while 8% said it should be illegal in all cases. More recent Gallup data from May found that 35% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal under any circumstances while 13% said it should be illegal in all circumstances.
The Pew Research Center data also looked at Catholic adults. Thirteen percent said abortion should be legal in all cases, while 10% said it should be illegal in all cases.
A previous EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll released in July found that 9% of Catholic likely voters said abortion should never be permitted and 18% said that abortion should be available at any time. The poll similarly showed that a majority of Catholic voters (82%) support some kind of restriction on abortion.
Confused about what Roe said?
The poll’s results came as little surprise to Catholic pro-life public policy experts such as Elizabeth R. Kirk.
“This study confirms a phenomenon we have known for some time, i.e., that there is an enormous disconnect between the scope of abortion practices permitted by the Roe regime and what abortion practices Americans actually support,” Kirk, director of the Center for Law and the Human Person at The Catholic University of America, told CNA.
Kirk, who also serves as a faculty fellow for the Institute for Human Ecology and research associate and lecturer at the Columbus School of Law, noted the finding that nearly 42% of Catholic voters said they are less likely to support a candidate who agrees with Roe being overturned.
“At first glance that suggests that many Catholic voters wanted to keep Roe in place,” she said. “Yet, the study also reveals that 86.5% of Catholic voters want some type of restriction on abortion access.”
Why the inconsistency? “Most people do not realize that Roe allowed states to permit unlimited abortion access throughout the entire pregnancy and made it difficult, or even impossible, to enact commonsense restrictions supported by the majority of Americans,” Kirk observed.
“Many people who ‘support Roe’ actually disagree, unknowingly, with what it permitted,” she added. “All Dobbs has done is return abortion policy to the legislative process so that the people may enact laws which reflect the public consensus.”
Mass-goers more strongly pro-life
The new poll, the second of three surveys of Catholic voters tied to the midterm elections on Nov. 8, shows that the opinions of Catholic voters on abortion and other issues vary depending on how often respondents attend Mass.
Only a small portion of those who attend Mass at least once a week said that abortion should be allowed at any time: 0% of those who attend Mass daily, 1% who attend more than once a week, and 8% of those who attend weekly support abortion without restrictions. In contrast, 57.5% of Catholic voters who attend Mass daily, 21.5% of those who attend more than once a week, and 15.6% of those who attend weekly say abortion should never be permitted.
In addition to respondents’ apparent confusion about what Roe stipulated, the poll suggests that many Catholic voters don’t fully understand what their Church teaches about abortion.
Less than one-third of Catholic voters who said they accept all Church teachings (31.1%) said that abortion should never be permitted, and 5% who profess to fully accept the Church’s teachings said abortion should be permitted at any time.
Overall, 32.8% of respondents reported attending Mass at least once a week, with another 30.7% attending once a year or less. Only 15% agreed that they accept all of the Church’s teachings and live their lives accordingly, with another 34.5% saying they generally accept most of the Church’s teachings and try to live accordingly.
Pew Research Center also looked at how Mass attendance factors into Catholics’ views on abortion. Among those who attend Mass at least once a week: 4% said abortion should be legal in all cases, and 24% said it should be illegal in all cases, Pew found.
Strong support for pregnancy centers
The poll asked Catholic voters about a variety of other topics including abortion limits, Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians, conscience protections for health care workers, and pro-life pregnancy centers.
EWTN
Among the findings:
Catholic voters are prioritizing other issues above abortion. Only 10.1% of Catholic voters identified abortion as the most important issue facing the nation, falling behind inflation (34.2%) and the economy/jobs (19.7%) and tying with immigration. At the same time, a higher percentage of Catholic voters chose abortion than crime (8.7%), climate change (8.1% ), health care (6.8%), K–12 education (1.7%), or religious freedom (0.8%).
About half of Catholic voters (49.3%) disagreed that Catholic political leaders who support abortion publicly and promote policies that increase abortion access should refrain from taking Communion, while 36.7% said they should refrain.
A majority (67.4%) of Catholic voters said they support public funding for pro-life pregnancy centers that offer pregnant women life-affirming alternatives to abortion, while 18.3% said they did not favor using tax dollars for this purpose.
A comparable majority (61.8%) said that political and church leaders should be speaking out against the recent attacks and acts of vandalism on pregnancy resource centers.
When asked about conscience protections for health care workers that would allow them to opt out of providing “services” such as abortion, a majority of Catholic voters (60.7%) said that health care workers should not be obligated to engage in procedures that they object to based on moral or religious grounds. Conversely, 25.3% said that health care workers should be obligated to engage in procedures that they object to based on moral or religious grounds.
Work to be done
What is the takeaway from the latest poll, where abortion is concerned?
“This polling shows that Catholics, like the overwhelming majority of Americans, support commonsense protections for women and the unborn,” Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, told CNA.
“It also affirms other recent polling that found Americans by strong numbers support the work of pregnancy resource centers in providing women facing crisis pregnancies with a real choice and the chance to thrive as mothers despite difficult circumstances,” she noted.
EWTN
At the same time, McGuire added, “This new polling is also a reminder that more work needs to be done in catechizing Catholics on foundational Church teaching in support of vulnerable life in all stages — an effort that is continually undermined by Catholic politicians in the highest echelons of power who use their platforms to advocate for extreme abortion policies in direct violation of Church teaching.”
Nearly all of those surveyed (99.2%) said they plan to vote in the midterm elections on Nov. 8.
The so-called apology was a load of horse manure. And lies from top to bottom. Do they think we’re total idiots?
Kudos to Bishop Barron for calling them out on it.
Two centuries before Muhammad, St. Augustine also hailed from what is now Muslim territory. And, from Augustine, we see clearly the root of evil, less distinct and not even recognized, in 7th-century Islam, or lately the post-Christian West. The mystery of this primal flaw is original to creatures rather than to the Creator: the original sin…
About this taproot of moral evil, Augustine discovers that the really original sin is not so much any external action—whether a core or “apple” sin, or now exhibitionism on the Seine, or possible denial (in both the West and the East) of the totally gifted and historical Incarnation. But, firstly, the internal betrayal of self and of God. The almost reflexive—and yet chosen—predisposition (!) of original pride over truthful humility.
Distinct from any proposed pluralism of religions—the followers of Islam and the witnesses to Christ, both, and members all religions—have some sense of the inborn “natural law” involving baseline fraternity. The expropriation of the Last Supper, floated into the Olympics opening ceremony, violated this interior, universal, and personal fact. But also, yes, the expressive “beliefs” of all religions. And, surely the “faith” of Christians in the divine self-disclosure of the Triune One in Jesus Christ…
“Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is ONLY MAGESTY, NEVER EMMANUEL [italics], God-with-us. ISLAM IS NOT A RELIGION OF REDEMPTION. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Muhammad. There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology is very distant from Christianity” (St. John Paul II, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” Knopf, 1994, pp. 92-3).
European Muslims have aligned with observant Jews in the past over issues like circumcision and kosher/halal butchers.
It’s a good thing whenever the different branches of the children of Abraham find common ground together.
The so-called apology was a load of horse manure. And lies from top to bottom. Do they think we’re total idiots?
Kudos to Bishop Barron for calling them out on it.
Whopper (with cheese) of the week – “There was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group.”
Whopper (with pickles and onions) of the week – “If people have taken any offense we are really sorry.”
Take your pick, or – take both.
If they had mocked Islam, Paris would be BURNING NOW!!! The fact that the Muslim population is so big was the reason why for the comments!
Two centuries before Muhammad, St. Augustine also hailed from what is now Muslim territory. And, from Augustine, we see clearly the root of evil, less distinct and not even recognized, in 7th-century Islam, or lately the post-Christian West. The mystery of this primal flaw is original to creatures rather than to the Creator: the original sin…
About this taproot of moral evil, Augustine discovers that the really original sin is not so much any external action—whether a core or “apple” sin, or now exhibitionism on the Seine, or possible denial (in both the West and the East) of the totally gifted and historical Incarnation. But, firstly, the internal betrayal of self and of God. The almost reflexive—and yet chosen—predisposition (!) of original pride over truthful humility.
Distinct from any proposed pluralism of religions—the followers of Islam and the witnesses to Christ, both, and members all religions—have some sense of the inborn “natural law” involving baseline fraternity. The expropriation of the Last Supper, floated into the Olympics opening ceremony, violated this interior, universal, and personal fact. But also, yes, the expressive “beliefs” of all religions. And, surely the “faith” of Christians in the divine self-disclosure of the Triune One in Jesus Christ…
“Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is ONLY MAGESTY, NEVER EMMANUEL [italics], God-with-us. ISLAM IS NOT A RELIGION OF REDEMPTION. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Muhammad. There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology is very distant from Christianity” (St. John Paul II, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” Knopf, 1994, pp. 92-3).
Excellent column from Phil Lawler in Catholic Culture, July 30.
Note well, that while Muslim leaders have now condemned the scene, Francis has been silent.
I appreciate their condemnation of the abominations of the Paris Olympics.
May Khameini and Erdogan be rewarded for their righteous act with a trail of graces leading them into the Catholic Church.
Of John Paul II’s “three great religions” only one mocks and outright rejects our Lord.
Perhaps a temporary alliance with the Moslems is a good idea. It might enable us to defeat the immediate and greatest threat to Christianity.
European Muslims have aligned with observant Jews in the past over issues like circumcision and kosher/halal butchers.
It’s a good thing whenever the different branches of the children of Abraham find common ground together.