On Monday, July 29, 2024, Metropolitan John of Zambia and Mozambique met with the Ambassador of France in Lusaka, Thomas Rossignol.
The religious leader of the Orthodox Church in Zambia expressed his gratitude to the French diplomat for his constant support during the organization of the two-week program of Olympic education held in Zambia last month.
The Ambassador thanked the Orthodox Church for taking the initiative to promote the Olympic spirit throughout Zambia and assured the Metropolitan that he will continue to support this type of intercultural communication events.
On this occasion, the Metropolitan had the opportunity to convey to the representative of the French government the dissatisfaction of Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All Africa, regarding the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris and in particular the parody of the Last Supper.
The Metropolitan stated: “To the amazement of millions of Christians from all over the world, we saw performers dressed in “carnival costumes” mocking the Last Supper of Our Lord with His disciples, that most holy moment when He revealed to them the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
The Olympic Games are a symbol of world peace, of the harmonious coexistence of peoples and of truce. However, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris had nothing to do with the values of Olympism as an ideal, which – as Christians and as descendants of the ancient Greeks we know – includes beauty, kindness, frugality, purity, respect for others, spiritual morality and the sanctity of human life.
On the contrary, the constant attempt to de-sanctify or even dehumanize our modern “woke” culture stems from an unbridled claim to rights that has now become an end in itself.
In a Europe that promotes the principles of “tolerance” and the restriction of religious freedom, we stubbornly cling to the eternal and enduring evangelical values of love, freedom and repentance.
