The Eiffel Tower is seen July 26, 2024, during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (OSV News photo/Ludovic Marin, pool via Reuters) Letter of the Week
Opening ceremony shows ruling agenda conquers all
Dear Editor,
The opening ceremony of the Olympics prompted feelings of revulsion at the wilful impulse by France to traduce Christian culture in its opening ceremony.
The Olympics are not the property of Ideologues to project their politics or to suborn the athletes of participating countries, still less their culture and faith values.
Compared with other Olympic openings which celebrate the heroic, and the moral values towards which Olympians strive, the Paris debacle demonstrated how far France, under Macron, has descended into amoral rejection of the good and the truth and, in particular, of Christianity.
The Paris pastiche of the surpassing beauty of the Last Supper – celebrated in the daily life of Christians in Ireland, Europe and globally, as well as in European Art – is unacceptable. It highlights the distortions of woke culture and its impulse to appropriate, and corrupt all that is good and authentic – be it language or art or sport.
It prompts the question of whether soldiers are dying for this particular vision of “Europe” in a war that the French, in particular, continue to urge and promote rather than one based on dialogue as Ireland might once have done.
Yours etc.,
Ray Kinsella,
Ashford, Co. Wicklow
Sense in a contentious area
Dear Editor,
In The Irish Catholic of July 11, Breda O’Brien wrote an article: ‘Beware of political Christianity’. The question of political Christianity can cut both ways.
On a few occasions we have heard politicians criticised or ridiculed from the pulpit during Mass.
Have we lost faith in the radical difference there should be between our attitudes and those of the secular media?
Yours etc.,
Mrs Judith Leonard
Raheny, Dublin
Praise for Fr Burke
Dear Editor,
Your paper’s editorial of July 18 states a Communion war in Cork. As in any war, there are commitments to victory and for a stance to be taken, especially in not counting the cost.
The TD will speak about his rights, but what about the consciences of priests, whose love for their
Eucharistic Master is not considered because it may upset or cause offence? Would it not be more respectful to understand their perspective?
How lovely it would be to hear those in authority when such incidents are brought to them by means of pious busybodies or local Fourth Estate hacks state: “Good, he has done his job, Good day!”
Thank you, Fr Burke!
Yours etc.,
Fr John McCallion CC
Coalisland, Co. Tyrone
Judge not lest ye be judged
Dear Editor,
As reported in The Irish Catholic on July 18, Fr Gabriel Burke’s refusal to give Communion to Minister of State Colm Burke TD, because of a Government decision to enact greater access to abortion, has undermined all of us in ministry who want to create a more inclusive Church that welcomes all.
Politicians have a difficult job, particularly those who are practicing Catholics. Do they legislate for the few who share their values or the many they serve?
Yours etc.,
Deacon Frank Browne,
Rathfarnham, Dublin
Where’s the Olympic spirit?
Dear Editor,
As a Francophile I enjoyed overall the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris which was broadcast live on TV on Friday evening last. Congratulations to those involved.
Apart from the heavy rain, what really put a damper on the proceedings for me, though, was the gratuitous mock portrayal of the Last Supper, on which the Eucharistic ceremony is based. This is a Church sacrament which is held so dear by Christians all over the world.
The overall message of the Opening Ceremony was the promotion of peace, harmony and inclusion. How does the mocking of a sacred sacrament in the Christian church tie in with that theme?
Shame on the organisers of the Opening Ceremony for approving such an insult to people of a particular faith. It is certainly not in keeping with the Olympic spirit.
Yours etc.,
PJ Mathews,
Drogheda, Louth