Bishop Barron’s Olympics Commentary
As the 2024 Summer Olympics draw to a close, click below to watch videos and read articles highlighting Bishop Barron’s reflections on both the controversial opening ceremonies as well as the athleticism and competition inherent in the Olympic Games.
The Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics featured a controversial depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper that sparked outrage among Christians. Bishop Barron was one of the first Catholic officials to respond and his videos on the subject quickly went viral.
Bishop Barron followed up the videos with an editorial for Newsweek on August 6 that further clarified his thoughts on the Opening Ceremonies as a sign of cultural decline. Click here to read his piece.
The principal lesson that Christians should take from these gestures is that the people behind them know who their enemy is. The ideology that is now dominant in the West and that has infiltrated most of the institutions of Western society—education, business, government, entertainment—is secularist, materialist, and morally relativist. What stands most powerfully against this philosophy are the Christian churches, especially, I daresay, the Catholic Church.
Once the games began, Bishop Barron offered a reflection on the gold medal–winning performance of Team USA Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, commenting on the Olympic competitions’ ability to draw us in through the beauty of athletic skill. Watch the video below to hear more.
If you’re watching the greatest of all time perform, you’re just contemplating the beauty of this performance. And there’s something mystical about that, something wonderful about it. And you see why the Olympics emerged long ago and why they still hold our attention today.