Vatican Says That ‘Last Supper’–Like Olympics Drag Performance Was an ‘Offense’ to Christians

August 5, 2024

The Holy See is the latest religious entity to denounce a drag queen performance staged during the Paris Olympics‘s opening. Compared by many to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, the performance was an “offense” to “many Christians and believers of other religions,” the Vatican said this week.

The statement came roughly a week after the performance itself, which involved a group of performers voguing a catwalk. Some observers said that the lengthy catwalk and the formation of the dancers were references to the Leonardo painting, claiming that one dancer who wore a star-shaped crown was meant to symbolize Jesus.

Others have noted that there were many differences between the performance and the painting, and one art historian even said a more accurate reference point may be Jan van Bijlert‘s Festival of the Gods (1635), which depicts Roman deities, not Christian subject matter.

But this was not enough to dissuade the detractors, who alleged that the drag queens had insulted Christians. Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the United States’s House of Representatives, called the performance a “war on our faith.” Elon Musk, the owner of X, wrote on his social media platform that the performance was “disrespectful of Christians.”

An Olympics spokesperson subsequently apologized for any offense caused, noting that it was not intentional. And Thomas Jolly, who served as artistic director of the opening ceremony, said that the performance was meant as “a big pagan party in link with the God of Mount Olympus.”

Even as the controversy appeared to die down, the Holy See weighed in this week because, it said, it was moved to “deplore” the event.

“At a prestigious event where the whole world comes together to share common values, there should be no allusions ridiculing the religious convictions of many people,” the Vatican said in a statement. Freedom of expression matters, the Vatican said, but only in so much as it is not “limited by respect for others.”