The creators of the opening ceremony of the Olympics really created a lot of hassle for a lot of people.
The organisers of the entire games had to apologise, boxer Imane Khalif no doubt had their case highlighted to greater effect because of the perception that the games was coming with a woke agenda and most of all, the Last Supper stunt was a pain in the neck for the church in France, which had spent years planning a ‘Holy Games’ evangelisation project to centre around the event.
There appears to have been a far more sinister development during the games however, according to the Polish team chaplain.
Father Edward Pleń has been chaplain for 11 Olympics Games, including summer and winter, and recalls this as the first ‘normal games’ where Mass was forbidden by authorities at the Olympic Village.
By non normal games, he refers to the games during lockdown in Tokyo and Beijing.
Fr Edward has said:
Having the experience of the previous games, I wanted to establish the times of the Holy Masses in advance. However, it turned out that masses could not be celebrated here, because 'there is only prayer here'.
The Holy Mass is the most beautiful prayer, but they were adamant. I couldn't and still can't understand it
- During the previous games, it was possible to celebrate mass in the Olympic village, although it was different during the summer games in Tokyo and the winter games in Beijing, because there was a pandemic, so there were also restrictions. At that time, the ecumenical center was run online. Now, however, the possibility of celebrating the Eucharist has been blocked. I don't know who came up with such an absurd idea.
Even with the Olympic Games finished, the faith element is still giving those in charge a headache.
