France, which "was once a Christian state," is now "mocking its cultural and spiritual heritage." This is how Vakhtang Kipshidze, Deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations, commented on the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris.
"This is some kind of attempt, and quite successful, of civilizational suicide," the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church said News.ru .
"An attempt to ridicule, slander, insult what has always been at the heart of the cultural identity of the French people. Now all this is being destroyed. And this will lead to a civilizational catastrophe. And it already leads," Kipshidze concluded.
As EADaily reported, the opening ceremony of the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games in Paris was held on July 26. For the first time, the athletes' parade was held not at the stadium, but on boats along the Seine River.
In addition to the obvious blunders of the organizers, such as the inverted flag with five rings, the North and South Korean announcers confused, for which the national teams later had to apologize, the ceremony was replete with dubious creative findings. So, the indignation of many even Western tolerant observers was caused by a scene in which transvestites depicted the Last Supper. The Greek portal Pronews called it evidence of the collapse of civilization and Christian culture in Western Europe.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban joined the general chorus of critics of this event. According to him, the Paris show demonstrated the West's lack of a common moral basis.
The French Episcopal Conference also criticized the Sodomite opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris for "ridiculing Christianity."
Observing the wave of indignation, the IOC considered it necessary to apologize for the "separate scenes" of the opening ceremony of the games. If someone was offended by these very scenes, "it was unintentional and the Organizing Committee regrets."