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NIGERIA CATHOLIC NETWORK BLOG News Nigeria GOD CANNOT BE MOCKED (Galatians 6:7) A RESPONSE TO THE DESECRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AT THE OPENING CEREMONIES OF THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
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GOD CANNOT BE MOCKED (Galatians 6:7) A RESPONSE TO THE DESECRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AT THE OPENING CEREMONIES OF THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES

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  • August 9, 2024
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GOD CANNOT BE MOCKED (Galatians 6:7)

A RESPONSE TO THE DESECRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AT THE OPENING CEREMONIES OF THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES

 

1. PREAMBLE
Beloved people of goodwill.
Greetings of peace from Katsina-Ala Diocese, Benue State, Nigeria.

As a co-shepherd with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Successor of St. Peter, and in exercise of my episcopal ministry; especially in Katsina-Ala Diocese and in order to clear the emerging controversies about our Christian faith, it has become necessary to respond to the current outrage and animosity generated by the worrisome opening ceremonies of the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympic Games in France.

 

2. THE OLYMPIC GAMES: A GIFT FROM GOD FOR HUMAN SOLIDARITY
In creating the world, God has given us innumerable gifts of things and persons and human solidarity, by which we build a network of friendships and companionship across religions, cultures and socio-political affiliations. The Olympic Games is one of these unfathomable gifts of God, aimed at building bridges and not walls, connecting and not dividing the world, embracing and not antagonizing each other, appreciating and not desecrating our diversity and religious beliefs. The response by all men and women and nations to God’s unmerited goodness, deservedly should be gratitude and reverence to Him and not mockery or blasphemy against the very structures and acts of worship rendered to God.
In the light of the above and in unison with Christian leaders and Christians as well as other religious leaders around the world, I condemn unequivocally, the blasphemous ceremonies that marked the commencement of the ongoing 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. Regardless of the modern constitution of France, the French nation like all other nations, owes a debt of gratitude to God and the Church, for its rich history and present, through the guidance and goodwill of Christianity. The unbreakable bond between France and God through the Church can be likened to that of an unborn baby and the mother through the umbilical cord; to severe such ties means suicide, self-inflicted death.
It is saddening that France provided the very soil out of which God made it and the entire world to become a platform for the mockery of God, and the Table (of the Eucharist) on which Christ continues to offer himself for us all to become a stage of amusement and caricature. Recreating the salvific event of the Lord’s Supper in a blasphemous manner, through the instrumentality of drag queens and kings in an amorous fashion is a desecration of the highest order. There is no gainsaying that the modern Olympic Games and its spirit and vision derives its origin from the Church through the unblemish friendship of Friar Louis Henri Didon and the “Father of the Modern Olympic Games”, Baron Pierre Coubertin.

Man and the Olympic Games, cannot turn around to destroy what made and continues to sustain it, or mock or ridicule the One, who made and continues to hold it in being. God cannot be mocked (Galatians 6:7).

 

3. PROMOTING AND PRESERVING WORLD PEACE
The Prophet Isaiah assures us that “God has ordained peace for us (Is. 26:12) and this finds its fulfilment in the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace (Is. 9:6). Jesus himself bequeathed this precious gift of peace to his disciples upon rising from the dead, “peace be with you… (Jn. 20:19). While it is true that God has ordained peace for us through his Son, Jesus Christ, it is the collective duty and responsibility of every man and woman, governments and other institutions to value, promote and preserve this beautiful gift. We must be guided by the core human values of respect for the rights and dignity of the human person, religious and cultural beliefs, while avoiding any words or actions that violate the rights and convictions of others or other acts that insult or injure their religious values and principles.
Let me reiterate the fatherly exhortation of Pope Francis in response to the January 2015 attack on the French Media House, the Producers of the Charlie Hebdo Magazine; “Don’t kill in God’s name, but don’t insult faith… One cannot make fun of faith”. World Leaders, content creators, artists, entertainers and others who work in the entertainment industry are encouraged to explore their human potential and capacities but only insofar as they do not violate the rights of others or offend or insult their religious beliefs or socio-cultural values. We must realize that when used wrongly, every gift has within it the potency to destroy both the “owner and the beneficiaries”.

On 6th June, 2015, during his homily as he celebrated Mass at Sarajevoโ€™s โ€œKosevo Stadiumโ€, Pope Francis called on all men and women to become โ€œartisans of peaceโ€ in living out their daily lives. In April, 2024, the Holy Father, while speaking to a group of Italian children re-echoed this plea, “In this time still marked by war, I ask you to be artisans of peace”. Now, more than ever, is the time to be ” artisans of peace” by word and deed, at home and at work, in Church and on the stage.

 

4. FORGIVENESS AND REPARATION: OUR RESPONSE AS CHRISTIANS
While we are deeply saddened and greatly wounded by the desecration of our faith in public glare and without remorse by “those who mock us”, we are reminded by Jesus’ invitation to “forgive and pray for those who persecute or mock us” ( 5:44), because they do not know what they do (Lk 23:24 ).
Every Christian is right to be enraged, but we must respond more forcefully through witness of life and by being proud of our Christian faith and values in our daily lives. No christian should respond with violence, but rather through practical demonstration of the superiority of our faith and God by means of works of charity. Our response as Christian leaders should be an intensified catechesis on the beauty of our faith as a gift from God and as parents, to teach and lead our children in witnessing to this faith everyday, through communal prayer and by gathering around the Eucharistic table to thank and adore the Lord. The Christian athletes participating at the ongoing games in Paris, should consider the fields, courts and sporting venues as tables of communion and pulpits of witnessing to the faith. Their sport wears, boots, rackets and other sporting equipment should become both their garments of love and instruments of peace.

In atonement, I enjoin all Christians to pray the Divine Mercy Prayer at 3:00pm daily, throughout the duration of the Olympic Games in addition to other acts of penance, for reparation to our merciful God and to obtain his abundant mercy for those who mock Him and our faith.

 

5. CONCLUSION AND PRAYER
In conclusion, I encourage all Christians with the words of St. Paul, “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1Cor. 1:22-25). What is foolishness to others is our treasure, what is a source of amusement for them is for us the source of our salvation. Above all, be strengthened by the assurance of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew 16:18, “…the gates of hell shall never prevail against my Church”. The darkness of the world cannot overcome the light of Christ.
May God, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient and the Omnipresent; the Giver and Nourisher of our faith, sustain you by his unfailing grace, to be true witnesses, the light and salt of the world, Amen.

Given on this 30th Day of July, 2024 at the Diocesan Chancery, Katsina-Ala, Benue State, Nigeria.

 

Most Rev. Isaac B. DUGU
Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Katsina-Ala

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