Despite the fact that the Church has always condemned immodest clothing, as well as cross-dressing (Deuteronomy 22:5 states that it is an “abomination” for men and women to wear opposite sex clothing), pro-LGBT activist Robert Shine argued in a July 30 op-ed that the real reason why clergy are upset is because they seem to have a “lack of understanding about drag — its history, its meaning, and its value.”
“I am not concerned about the performance’s depiction but greatly concerned with how bishops have reacted,” Shine said.
New Ways Ministry was officially censured by the Vatican in 1999 by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Notwithstanding its efforts to affirm persons who suffer from gender confusion and homosexual tendencies in their sinful behaviors, it has been rehabilitated under Pope Francis, who met with the group’s heretical founder, Sister Jeannine Gramick and her colleagues in 2023 at the Vatican, where he reportedly told them to “go forward” with their activities. He also praised Gramick in 2022, and in 2024 said to her that “transgender people must be accepted and integrated into society.”
Shine further claimed in his theologically illiterate essay that the performance only “allegedly” depicted the Last Supper. He quoted a person who participated in the stunt as having said “there were no real provocations or anything that was truly obscene” to support his wholly inaccurate characterization.
Barbara Butch is the woman who was at the center of the sacrilegious ceremony, which many have described as being Satanic. Butch admitted on her Instagram account that she was purposefully trying to portray Jesus Christ. What’s more, Butch, a self-described proud “fat, Jewish, queer lesbian,” has not expressed regret over her actions. Rather, she is now taking legal action for purported “abuse” she has received online.
Critics of the opening ceremonies point to the obvious similarities between the posturing of the persons involved and the unveiling of pagan god Dionysus on the table in front of them to argue that the performance was an obvious mockery of Our Lord’s gathering with his apostles on the night he was betrayed.
A screenshot of the depiction appears to show a performer exposing his genitals while on live television.
As of the publication of this article, Pope Francis has yet to denounce the scandalous event.
Catholic teaching holds that men and women are made in the image of God and that they are temples of the Holy Spirit. Among other things, this forbids them from engaging in fornication, drunkenness, sexual impurities, and similar debauched behaviors (Romans 13:13).
Scripture is replete with other references to the differences between men and women as well. Verses like 1 Timothy 2:9–10, James 2:1–4, and 1 Corinthians 11:14–15 warn against men and women from dressing in ostentatious ways. Basic Catholic teaching on modesty also necessitates that the body not be comported in provocative positions.
Multiple churchmen have expounded upon these matters in years past, including St. Francis de Sales, who wrote in his Introduction to the Devout Life that “it is an affront to those with whom you associate to be unsuitably dressed.” He also said Christians should “avoid all conceits, vanities, finery, and affectation. Adhere as far as possible to modesty and simplicity, which doubtless are the best ornaments of beauty and the best atonement for its deficiency.”
Likewise, St. Thomas Aquinas said that “women who have no husband nor wish to have one, or who are in a state of life inconsistent with marriage, cannot without sin desire to give lustful pleasure to those men who see them, because this is to incite them to sin.”
More recently, 20th century Italian Catholic Cardinal Guiseppi Siri wrote in the 1950s that in order to be modest, “clothes need not simply cover the body but must also not cling too closely to the body.” The “wearing of men’s dress by women affects firstly the woman herself, by changing the feminine psychology proper to women.”
Drag performances by their nature violate all of these principles. As such, they are not only to be avoided with the eyes at all costs but most especially condemned in the harshest of terms.