Church of Greece slams The Last Supper parody at Paris Olympics

ATHENS: The head of the Church of Greece said that The Last Supper parody at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics is “worthy of absolute contempt,” local media reported.

“All this is worthy of absolute contempt,” Archbishop Ieronymos II was quoted as saying by multiple Greek dailies.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani, a senior Orthodox cleric in the country, sent a letter to French Ambassador to Greece Laurence Auer to express severe dissatisfaction over the parody, according to the Orthodox Times.

He said in the letter: “I write to express my deep regret and dissatisfaction with the disrespectful incident during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, namely, the blasphemous representation of the ‘Last Supper’.”

Maintaining that such actions are not in line with European Christian culture, the letter read: “I hope that similar provocative and anti-religious acts will not be repeated in the future.”

The opening ceremony on Friday drew backlash for a drag queen parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, which many viewed as disrespectful to religious beliefs.


Artistic director Thomas Jolly defended the controversial performance, claiming it depicted a pagan festival.