RCC Cardinal compares Paris Olympics to Nazi Olympics in Berlin

Cardinal Dominik Duka. Photo: lidovky.cz

The former Catholic Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Dominik Duka, compared the upcoming Paris Olympics to the Nazi Olympics in Berlin and the Soviet Olympics in Moscow.

In his blog on the pages of Zdroj, he stated that the Paris Olympics, along with the 1936 Berlin and 1980 Moscow Olympics, symbolize ideological violence against athletes and a departure from true Olympic principles.

He wrote that during the Paris Olympics, athletes are being exploited for the purposes of "Nazism, communism, and new ideologies that essentially tell us that human identity does not exist."

The Cardinal reminded that in ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were held during peacetime and "symbolized the struggle for one's family, home, and homeland."

"These are the laws that protect a person and their dignity. These are laws that protect the family, laws that protect my nation, my homeland. The Olympic Games were not world games; they were games of Hellas, of individual Hellenic tribes and states, who did not merely want military pentathlon but knew that war is not waged for the sake of war, but for the sake of peace," the Cardinal wrote.

He emphasized that in 1896, when the Olympic Games were revived, "they began on the plains of Athens, on a meadow where Father Henri Didon celebrated the Eucharist, that is, the holy mass, with the participation of the King of Greece."

Since then, according to Dominik Duka, "the Olympic Games are built not only on the beauty of the human spirit, its culture, and art, but also on true friendship," and "Christianity brought this element into the revival of the Olympic Games."

Criticizing the blasphemous allusions to Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the Cardinal compared the ideological manipulations at the Paris Olympics to those that occurred in Nazi Germany in 1936 and the Soviet Union in 1980, and expressed concern about the future of sports and its role in society.

He also believes that the Paris games cannot be called ones that speak of law, peace, and friendship. "A man defeating a woman in a boxing discipline is evidence of this. I ask: where is the Istanbul Convention, where are its defenders?" the Cardinal concluded in confusion.

Previously, the UOJ reported that a Catholic priest revealed that Masses for athletes were banned at the Olympics.

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