“C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves about the company’s decision. / Credit: QubixStudio/Shutterstock
ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 31, 2024 / 17:32 pm (CNA).
The drag-queen-led parody of the Last Supper featured during the opening ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games sparked outrage around the world and has led C Spire, a U.S. mobile phone and internet company, to make the decision to pull all its advertising from the Olympics.
“We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics,” the Mississippi-based company announced in a post on X.
Commenting on the move, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said on X: “I am proud to see the private sector in Mississippi step up and put their foot down. God will not be mocked. C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line.”
More than 390,000 signatures demand a formal apology
In addition, more than 390,000 signatures have been collected in two campaigns — one by the CitizenGo platform, with more than 250,000, and another by the Christian Lawyers Foundation in Spain, with almost 140,000 — to request a formal apology from the organizers of the Olympic Games for the parody of the Last Supper.
The archbishop of Malta and deputy secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Charles Scicluna, also said he has written to the French ambassador in Malta to express the “distress and disappointment of many Christians at the gratuitous insult during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics” and encouraged others to do the same.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. [The opening ceremony] tried to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are really sorry,” said Anne Descamps, spokeswoman for Paris 2024, at a July 28 press conference, according to Reuters.
An opportunity for evangelization and forgiveness
The bishop of Córdoba in Spain, Demetrio Fernández, pointed out in his July 29 homily that with the parody of the Last Supper and with it the Eucharist, “they are trying to offend Christians, Jesus who has left us in this sacrament the essence of his life.”
“These blasphemies are very significant, but we have to show the capacity of Jesus Christ and his Church to forgive,” the prelate noted.
“Furthermore, this becomes an opportunity for evangelization that no one else can offer; only Christians are capable of forgiving even when they know the pain that this offense causes,” the Spanish bishop emphasized.
“The forgiveness of Jesus Christ for each one of us is greater than our offenses and the forgiveness of Christians is capable of being conveyed even when they feel deeply wounded,” Fernandez emphasized.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Saint Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei. Photo courtesy of Opus Dei / null
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Tabea Schneider (far left) with a group of other pilgrims who traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Courtney Mares / CNA
Vatican City, Jan 5, 2023 / 08:36 am (CNA).
Catholics from Germany, France, Ghana, India, Australia, Uganda, and many more countries who attended the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Thursday have shared their favorite memories of the late pope and why some decided to join in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the ceremony.
More than 50,000 people attended the Jan. 5 funeral for the pope emeritus, who died at the age of 95 last Saturday.
Among those in the crowd for the funeral was Arthur Escamila, who got to know Benedict XVI personally during the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia.
“It was emotional seeing the coffin coming out of the basilica,” he told CNA.
Escamila, a numerary from Opus Dei, recalled how Benedict XVI rested for a few days in the Opus Dei center in Sydney where he was living at the time.
“I had the privilege of living together with him for three days in Sydney in 2008 just before World Youth Day. We spent three days together. I attended his Mass. I ate with him. I listened to music with him,” he said.
Among those in the crowd for the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, was Arthur Escamila, who got to know Benedict XVI personally during the 2008 World Youth Day in Australia. Courtney Mares / CNA
Benedict XVI was “very humble” and “approachable,” Escamila remembered. “From the beginning he learned my name. He addressed me by my first name and I was very impressed by that.”
Arthur Escamila meets Pope Benedict XVI during the pope’s trip to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 15–20, 2008. Vatican Media
“My father had recently died. He was interested in that and asked me questions about my father, my family. He wanted to know about his illness. So I was personally touched,” he said.
“So his death meant a lot because it was closing a chapter where I knew the pope emeritus personally and had a connection with him that was personal.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, also spoke about his personal memories of Benedict XVI.
The cardinal, who traveled from India for the funeral, told CNA that he found the funeral “very moving” and a “fitting farewell for the Holy Father Emeritus.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, spoke about his personal memories of Pope Benedict XVI at the pope’s funeral on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“He was a great theologian, the greatest of the 20th century I think. I personally … whenever I read any article, any book, any homily of his I always got a new insight into theology or spirituality. His was a great contribution for the Church,” Gracias said.
The Indian cardinal also expressed gratitude for the many ways that the former pope touched his life: “He created me cardinal. He appointed me archbishop of Bombay … and we met often. I was on the committee for the translation of liturgical texts and so we discussed much there.”
Father Albert Musinguzi from Uganda said that he felt “deep spiritual joy” at the funeral, especially because it was the first Mass he had ever concelebrated at the Vatican.
Father Albert Musinguzi (second from right) with other priests and deacons at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“Although we have lost a great man, we are not mourning. We are celebrating a spiritual giant, a great man, a gift to the Church and to the entire world because Pope Benedict was a man not only for the Church but for the entire world,” he said.
The priest from Uganda’s Archdiocese of Mbarara, currently studying in Rome, said that he believes that the late pope emeritus is a saint.
“Pope Benedict was a humble pope, but a great theologian. We have learned from his humility to approach God from the Word of God. But what I like most from his preaching is that God and science are not opposed to each other … And what touched me most recently in the life of Pope Benedict XVI were his last words,” Musinguzi said.
“As we know Pope Benedict was 95 years old, so for 71 years he has given homilies and innumerable essays. He has written 66 books, three encyclicals, four exhortations, and he has summarized all of them in four words, which were his last four words: ‘Jesus, I love you.’”
Tabea Schneider traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, with many other enthusiastic German pilgrims who spontaneously decided to come to Rome for the funeral. She said that she was very moved when Pope Francis touched the coffin of Benedict XVI.
Tabea Schneider (far left) with a group of other pilgrims who traveled 20 hours by bus from Cologne, Germany, to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Courtney Mares / CNA
“It was a very emotional moment,” she said.
A group of approximately 65 people from all across France traveled together to Rome for Benedict’s funeral.
The Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame, a men and women’s religious community, organized two buses.
After the funeral, the group prayed the Liturgy of the Hours outside St. Peter’s Square for the repose of the soul of Benedict XVI.
Members of the Famille Missionnaire de Notre Dame traveled to Rome from France for Benedict XVI’s funeral.
Sister Maksymiliana Domini, originally from Poland, told CNA the group arrived on Tuesday evening and will depart the night of the funeral.
“We love Pope Benedict,” she said, adding that they wanted to honor him and his legacy.
The Famille Missionnarie de Notre-Dame, she said, feels very close to Benedict because of their shared love for the Church’s liturgy and for an interpretation of the Second Vatican Council in the hermeneutic of continuity.
“We are 100% aligned with him spiritually,” Domini said.
Father Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah from Accra, Ghana, said that he enthusiastically joined in the chants of “santo subito” at the end of the Mass.
“I feel in my heart that Pope Benedict is a saint,” the priest said.
Father Anthony Agnes Adu Mensah from Accra, Ghana, (left) with a seminarian from his diocese at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Alan Koppschall / EWTN
We read: “These blasphemies are very significant, but we have to show the capacity of Jesus Christ and his Church to forgive.” Yes, to forgiveness, but as a possible footnote (better than the notorious open-door footnote to irregular stuff, found in Chapter Eight of Amoris Laetitia and embraced by a synodal cardinal from Malta).
So, here, the president of the International Olympics Committee, Thomas Bach, is German….Which might remind us of what another German, the lay theologian Josef Pieper, had to say about a superficial/graffiti sort of forgiveness—versus the real Jesus Christ and His more fostering (and shall we say truly dialoguing?) “readiness” to forgive…
Two points plus a summary:
FIRST: “Christ drove the money-changers from the temple with a whip, and [only hours after the Last Supper!] when the most patient of men stood before the high priest and was struck in the face by a servant, he did NOT [italics] turn the other cheek, but answered: ‘If there was harm in what I said, tell us what was harmful in it, but if not, why dost thou strike me?’” (Jn 18:23).
The striking scene of sin on the Seine?
SECOND, then PIEPER quotes AQUINAS in his commentary on St. John’s Gospel:
“Holy Scripture must be understood in the light of what Christ and his saints have actually practiced. Christ did not offer his other cheek, nor Paul either. Thus to interpret the injunction of the Sermon on the Mount [turning the other cheek, Mt 5:39] LITERALLY [italics] is to misunderstand it. This injunction signifies rather the readiness [!] of the soul to bear, IF IT BE NECESSARY [italics], such things and worse, without bitterness against the attacker. This readiness our Lord showed, when he gave up his body to be crucified. That response of the Lord was useful, therefore, for our instruction” (Pieper, “Fortitude and Temperance,” 1954).
SUMMARY, steadfast and upright “readiness,” not invertebrate. Beyond the Olympics context, a “welcoming” Church is one thing, a doormat is quite another….But who am I to judge, or whatever?
I find this rush to forgive premature.
As Bishop Barron has pointed out, there has been no apology.
If I understand the Parable correctly, the Prodigal Father was always ready to forgive but was able to put his readiness into action only when his son repented.
I’m STILL waiting for the Pope to say something about this. Surely enough time has elapsed for him to know about it.
Other news – the eminent Anne Descamps has emerged as the early favorite for the coveted title ‘liar of the decade’.
Address, email address, telephone number of C Spire?
We read: “These blasphemies are very significant, but we have to show the capacity of Jesus Christ and his Church to forgive.” Yes, to forgiveness, but as a possible footnote (better than the notorious open-door footnote to irregular stuff, found in Chapter Eight of Amoris Laetitia and embraced by a synodal cardinal from Malta).
So, here, the president of the International Olympics Committee, Thomas Bach, is German….Which might remind us of what another German, the lay theologian Josef Pieper, had to say about a superficial/graffiti sort of forgiveness—versus the real Jesus Christ and His more fostering (and shall we say truly dialoguing?) “readiness” to forgive…
Two points plus a summary:
FIRST: “Christ drove the money-changers from the temple with a whip, and [only hours after the Last Supper!] when the most patient of men stood before the high priest and was struck in the face by a servant, he did NOT [italics] turn the other cheek, but answered: ‘If there was harm in what I said, tell us what was harmful in it, but if not, why dost thou strike me?’” (Jn 18:23).
The striking scene of sin on the Seine?
SECOND, then PIEPER quotes AQUINAS in his commentary on St. John’s Gospel:
“Holy Scripture must be understood in the light of what Christ and his saints have actually practiced. Christ did not offer his other cheek, nor Paul either. Thus to interpret the injunction of the Sermon on the Mount [turning the other cheek, Mt 5:39] LITERALLY [italics] is to misunderstand it. This injunction signifies rather the readiness [!] of the soul to bear, IF IT BE NECESSARY [italics], such things and worse, without bitterness against the attacker. This readiness our Lord showed, when he gave up his body to be crucified. That response of the Lord was useful, therefore, for our instruction” (Pieper, “Fortitude and Temperance,” 1954).
SUMMARY, steadfast and upright “readiness,” not invertebrate. Beyond the Olympics context, a “welcoming” Church is one thing, a doormat is quite another….But who am I to judge, or whatever?
I find this rush to forgive premature.
As Bishop Barron has pointed out, there has been no apology.
If I understand the Parable correctly, the Prodigal Father was always ready to forgive but was able to put his readiness into action only when his son repented.