The Catholic Church’s delegate to the Olympics, Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard, says he's 'deeply hurt' by a segment during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris event he considered blasphemous.

Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting is believed to have depicted Christ as a lesbian DJ surrounded by drag queens. 

The image sparked outrage and indignation among millions of Christians.

“Article 50 of the Olympic Charter clearly states that the Games cannot be used to promote political, religious or racial ideas,” Bishop Gobilliard is quoted by the Register to have said.

“This ceremony, unfortunately, included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity,” lamented the French Bishops’ Conference in a July 27 press release, expressing their solidarity with “all Christians on every continent who have been hurt by the outrageousness and provocation of certain scenes.” 

A number of religious leaders from around the world quickly joined their protests, prompting the organizing committee in Paris to apologise to all those offended at a July 28 press conference.

“This ceremony was supposed to be inclusive, yet this scene excluded a whole category of spectators around the world,” remarked the French bishop, who also dismissed the counter-argument of the right to blasphemy.

“If the authors of these works and their supporters were capable of ‘blaspheming’ against themselves, in other words, of questioning themselves and their own ideas and points of view, then they would be credible in their approach. But their blasphemy always targets the creeds and dogmas of others, and preferably those of Christians,” he added, underlining the low risk of attacking the faithful who live the Gospel, which is opposed to violence. “They know very well that we’ll express our disappointment verbally, but that it won’t go much further, and in that, they showed a lack of courage.”

Asked about the possible action he could take on this matter as the Church’s representative at the Olympics, for example calling out the French authorities or the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Bishop Gobilliard said he preferred to invest his energy in pursuing his pastoral mission, notably with the multifaith centre in the Olympic Village.

He added, “I wrote a letter to the IOC president to tell him how hurt I was by certain segments of the ceremony, but also to encourage him because I saw so many beautiful things alongside it."

In a post shared by the organisers, they explained that the intention behind the artwork was to raise awareness “of the absurdity of violence between human beings."

But Archbishop Charles SciCluna of the Vatican Powerful Doctrinal office also scene as a” gratuitous insult."

The Italian Bishops, in a statement quoted by daily Italian Newspaper, were shocked at how such mockery was allowed to be done.

“It took an unexpectedly negative turn, becoming a parade of banal errors, accompanied by trite and predictable ideologies.

“Don’t mistake us for moralistic bigots, but what’s the point of having to experience every single global event, even a sporting one, as if it was a gay pride?”

The Organisers have since apologised for the act, saying they were only demonstrating community tolerance and it wasn’t intended to offend any religious group.