U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke condemns the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games as 'the theater of Satan'

U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke strongly condemned the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics for parodying, critics say, the Christian faith with a performance that ridiculed Leonardo da Vinci's painting of "The Last Supper."

According to CatholicVote, Cardinal Burke mentioned the controversial scene in his homily at a Mass on July 31 to celebrate the 16th anniversary of the church's dedication at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

"On this past Friday, we witnessed an unbelievable manifestation of the darkness and sin in our world: the abominable mockery of the Holy Eucharist at its Institution for the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris," Cardinal Burke said. "It is difficult to imagine anything more debased and blasphemous."

"That such an event could take place shows us, in a most painful way, how what was once a Christian culture has become the theater of Satan and those who cooperate with his thoroughly evil plans, the plans of ‘a murderer from the beginning’ who ‘has nothing to do with the truth,’ the plans of ‘a liar and the father of lies.'"

According to statements picked up by the media, the cardinal declared that the performance is proof of the world's constant battle between the sacred and the blasphemous.

"Our disgust and anger about what happened at the Summer Olympics awakens anew our consciousness of so many other manifestations of the open rebellion against God and His plan for our salvation in the world in which we live: attacks on human life and its cradle in the family created by the marriage of a man and a woman, and attacks on religion itself and its free exercise."