Catholic movie star Mel Gibson issued a stinging rebuke of the “disgusting” opening ceremonies at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, which he said attacked his religious beliefs.
Gibson sent his remarks to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. Viganò shared them on his X account Monday.
In his statement, Gibson said the performance “mocked” his Catholic faith.
“Who do they think they are that they can do this? Giving the gold medal to a biological male in women’s swimming had already made me boycott the games, but this offense has sealed the deal. Who conceived & designed that display?” he asked.
The man responsible for coordinating the ceremony is 42-year-old Frenchman Thomas Jolly.
Jolly is a homosexual who works as an actor and theater director. He previously told British Vogue that he wanted to make sure “everyone feels represented” in the ceremony. He also told another outlet that “you will never find in my work a desire to denigrate anyone or anything.”
Since the ceremony last Friday, there has been near-universal outrage from a wide swath of political and religious figures.
Not only have prominent public persons like Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and a growing number of conservative U.S. politicians denounced the ceremony, Catholic clergy have as well.
The aforementioned Archbishop Viganò called it “the latest in a long series of vile attacks on God, the Catholic Religion and natural Morality by the antichristic elite that holds Western countries hostage.” German Cardinal Gerhard Muller described it as an “act of spiritual terrorism.” Bishop Robert Barron noted that the Olympics wouldn’t dare mock Islam in a similar way.
The Vatican, meanwhile, has been conspicuously unwilling to condemn the blatantly sacrilegious event.
In a social media post on July 27, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia attempted to straddle both sides of the controversy by arguing that it showed that “everyone … wants to sit at that table where Jesus gives life for all and teaches love.”
Paglia is the Pope Francis-appointed president of the scandal-plagued Pontifical Academy for Life, which previously opposed abortion and other moral evils but now speaks out on social justice topics.
The only other statement from a Vatican official came from Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who serves as the adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The liberal Scicluna sent a message to the French ambassador of Malta expressing his “distress and great disappointment at the insult to us Christians.”
Gibson made note of the fact that Pope Francis has not commented on the ceremony in his remarks.
“It’s telling that the Ayatollah in Iran condemns this disgusting offensive display & yet our apostate, schismatic excuse for a pope says nothing, but we know that the last 11 years is just Halloween for Jorge Bergoglio,” he said.
Gibson, who is a known sedevacantist, was apparently referencing a statement issued by Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who has shared his thoughts in an X post.
“Respect for #JesusChrist … is an indisputable, definite matter for Muslims. We condemn these insults directed at the holy figures of divine religions, including Jesus Christ,” he said.
Khamenei, 85, has been in power in Iran for over four decades, having served as its president beginning in 1981 and then its head of state since 1989.
Islam does not hold that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It also denies that Our Lord is a member of the Holy Trinity.
Instead, it considers him a mortal man who is merely a “prophet.” Christianity teaches that Christ’s Hypostatic union makes him both human and divine, and that he is priest, prophet, and king who died to redeem mankind from sin.
Despite the widespread backlash, the ceremony was praised by French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. First Lady Jill Biden.
“It was just spectacular,” Biden said at a brunch Monday in Paris.
Macron likewise credited Jolly for his “creative genius.”
Olympic organizers have since issued a half-hearted apology for the ceremony, saying they are sorry “if anyone was offended.”