Paris 2024
Andrew Azzopardi, with a sharp tongue, lambasted the offended Christians during the Olympic opening ceremony, branding their outrage as a storm in a teacup. This noted dean of the Faculty of Social Well Being that offers masters in gender studies, that probably include study modules about drag shows, was mirroring the sentiments of literati like Andrew Borg-Cardona and Caroline Muscat, who simultaneously labeled the offended Catholics as joy-suckers stuck in the dark ages, oblivious to the rich tapestries of classical Greek literature. The enlightened opinionists of The Times of Malta and The Shift News parroted the french Olympic organizers’ defense of the ill-fated drag show featuring the Last Supper, asserting it was merely a portrayal of the Feast of the Gods. They reminded us of the many paintings from the Renaissance onwards of this mythological theme, including that of Jan van Biljert, from which the Olympic drag show of the Seine seems to have been inspired. Nevertheless not few of the drag performers including DJ Barbara Butch, a lesbian, have already unashamedly said that theirs was a mimicking of Da Vinci's Last Supper … no more no less.
Back to our enlightened opinionists and the French Ambassador to Malta. These reminded us that after all, it was the ancient Greeks who birthed the Olympic games. Thus the Parisian drag show including a blue skinned Dionysius was a vivid and honest slice of history.
It is this blatant twisting of the truth that prompted me to pen my thoughts. It seems that neither the French Ambassador to Malta, nor her woke supporters in the mainstream media and even Archbishop Charles Scicluna—despite his moral outcry against the drag show—have a grasp of true history. Even if the drag show was not offensive to Christians, it was, celebrating Dionysius in the opening ceremony of Olympic games, is suggesting modern atheltes to party hard with drugs, sex and rock & roll instead of training, dieting and concentrating mentally for the games.
Nobody seems to understand that the real insult is first and foremost to athletes and secondly to Jesus Christ. Dionysius was not the deity athletes look to for victories because his essence embodies revelry, excess, and indulgence, standing in stark contrast to the spirit of athletic competition. Dionysius hid behind a goat’s façade, compounding layers of ambiguity and treachery just like those athletes who use drugs, to cheat and win. He is synonmous with insanity and excess that pysically ruin human bodies. His cult included debauchery and undisciplined pleasures—antitheses to the values of the ancient Olympic games, which demanded discipline and rigorous training.
Only young men could be athletes and they took part completely naked in all the games spanning from running to discus throwing, javelin throwing to wrestling. Like Hercules, to triumph, one must endure sacrifice and NOT partake in Dionysian chaos that celebrated insanity. Dionysian cults are the opposite of mens sana in corpore sano - a stable mind in a healthy body.
Athletes were so keen to prove themselves worthy of the gods’ favours, that they revered training as sacred and were oftenly meeting defeat with tragic finality, thinking that they failed in connecting with divine favour. Suicide was common among athletes who lost.
The true essence of the classical Olympic spirit lies in perseverance and discipline and this is far removed from Bacchanal celebrations. Thus, it is the French Ambassador to Malta, Andrew Azzopardi and his echoes who miss the mark of history and NOT the offended Christians even though the latter mistakenly seem to be concerned only to the offence rendered unto Jesus Christ.
Lest we not forget that the modern Olympic movement drew inspiration from a French Dominican Father, Henri Didon, who penned the unifying motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius—Communiter. In English: faster, higher, stronger, together. For him, the essence was togetherness, celebrating all, unlike the solitary despair of lost athletes of old.
One last comment about the Archbishop's tirade against the Olympic drag show and his letter to the Ambassador. His grace's disapproval might have carried weight if Andrew Azzopardi hadn’t been given ample airtime on the church's very own radio, funded by the Christian faithful whom the Dean dared to label as ignorant. For years, Andrew Azzopardi has woven his schemes through this station, targeting everything that’s genuinely Christian—most ironically on the church's own airwaves. One can only wonder how he might boast to his peers about the audacity it took to carve out his own niche on such a modern pulpit within the church.
Meanwhile, Azzopardi turned the tables on Archbishop Scicluna, even in the presence of the French Ambassador who is equally ignorant about classics but wise enough to torpedo Scicluna's with just one stroke of a genius - don't be judgemental. That was after all Scicluna’s own method to dehumanise anyone who dared question his endorsement of queer theology. Scicluna trumpted ad nauseam Bergoglio's slogan “who am I to judge?” and the French ambassador uses the slogan “do not judge” against Scicluna. Finally the Maltese bishop is tasting some of his own medicine. The bishop must learn, but he will not, that befriending woke opinionists and politicians just to stand on a woke journalist's soap box will always backfire.
Finally, the Archbishop's denunciation would ring truer had he not utilized his own pulpit to proclaim the truth and not the falsity that homosexuality is blessed by God. For many years Charles Scicluna has championed the LGBTQI+ crusade and persecuted anyone who dared say that the Church officially condemns homosexuality. Many Maltese Catholics said that Scicluna’s sudden anti-LGTQ tirade is still satisfactory for it is “better late than never.” Just as many retorted, “too little, too late”.
Perhaps, the Archbishop envisons classical Olympic games devoid of drag shows, with young men competing on an athletic stage reminiscent of Michelangelo's David—athletes untouched by the very gender theories condemned by Pope Francis in Dignitas Infinita. If he does dream that, then he must start preaching Pope Francis's ’ Dignitas Infinita now and not leave it gathering dust on a forgotten shelf. Only then Scicluna would be credible once again.
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