The Olympics have started, and what a start is has been! An opening ceremony that has caused waves in society and especially in the Catholic Church.
And what, might you ask, are you talking about? We’re talking about the tableau that was used in the opening ceremony that represented, for some, the story in Greek mythology of the god of wine, Bacchus, while, for others, it represented an insult to the Last Supper and the Holy Eucharist.
The tableau consisted of drag queens imitating the painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci in the presence of the god of wine in Greek mythology, Bacchus. Unfortunately, this has set minds spinning and tongues wagging. Perception and interpretation are at the root of all this controversy.
Perhaps one might be too eager to judge, too eager to condemn. Responding to our initial reactions immediately without stopping to think and to reflect will sometimes lead us to jump to the wrong conclusions and to make hasty judgements.
Perhaps the message is that Christ would have invited members of the queer community to sit with him at the Last Supper
We wonder if there would have been the same reaction had the actors been heterosexual people rather than drag queens. Would this, perhaps, have put the context in a different dimension? Inclusion and diversity are the buzzwords in society and yet many are still experiencing marginalisation and exclusion and judgement because of their differences.
We, as members of the LGBTIQ+ community and their parents, know and have lived the experience of being marginalised, excluded from society and not being able to live our truth. The fact that we now have some rights to be able to express ourselves should not put us under the guillotine again.
Let us be clear, whether it was a representation of Greek mythology or a parody of the Last Supper, it has definitely hurt people. Freedom of speech and expression cannot come at the cost of not respecting others and their beliefs. Freedom of speech and expression should not be used to target any religion or any minority.
We, as Drachma, do not condone insults to any religion, especially during a ceremony that celebrates the diversity throughout the world, the inclusion of persons from all walks of life and the liberty to live one’s life as wholly and as liberating as possible.
Drachma, as an LGBTIQ+ group with strong roots in our faith and purpose in seeking to embrace our spirituality with our identity, are concerned not only for the impact that this has had on society as a whole, on the Catholic Church in particular, but, most especially, on the reactions towards the queer community.
However, going back to perception and interpretation, if we stop for a moment and think about what this tableau represents, we might find other meanings to it.
Looking at this tableau from a positive angle, we dare to believe that perhaps the message here is that Christ would have invited members of the queer community to sit with him at the Last Supper, to have broken bread with him and to have drunk from the chalice.
God is a God of surprises. He would have accepted members of the LGBTIQ+ community to be part of the Roman Catholic Church without any restrictions or conditions. Let’s stop and think about this.
Louisa Grech is co-president of Drachma.