The Olympics Ceremony, Mimetic Art & Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Moralist and Doctor of the Church

Saint Alphonsus Liguori was a Catholic bishop, spiritual writer, composer, musician, artist, poet, lawyer, scholastic philosopher,  theologian, moralist patron of Moral Theologians and confessors and Doctor of the Church. August 1st  is his Feast Day.

The Olympics Organizers, including Thomas Jolly, would have been well served if they had heeded the teachings of Saint Alphonsus Liguori.

Writing for Forbes, Sonia Thompson writes: "There’s been a lot of talk about the opening ceremony at the Paris 2024 Olympics. In particular, there was a scene that depicted an interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus that caused a significant amount of outrage. Many felt like the imagery was making a mockery of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of 'The Last Supper,' which is iconic as part of the Christian faith."

Thompson defends Thomas Jolly's nod to a pagan celebration featuring Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, wine and revelry as simply good inclusive marketing: "Inclusive marketing is all about acknowledging the many ways consumers are different; intentionally choosing which identities it will serve; and then, incorporating those identities throughout every aspect of the marketing mix." The term 'inclusive marketing' has become synonymous with AntiChristian values and is euphemism for exclusion. The stated goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. It is not to indoctrinate or promote paganism.

If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be mimetic art. Aristotle calls human beings the most imitative of animals and observes that we learn our first lesson by immitation. A form of mimetic art, where mimetic art makes its source or exemplar present-in-its-absence. He says that people take pleasure at looking at pictures or images " because what happens is that, as they contemplate them, they learn and reason what each thing is. Since if by chance one has not seen the subject-matter of the immitation before, the image will not produce pleasure as immitation but on the account of the workmanship or the color or an account of some other cause such as this.  Poetics 4 (1448b14-19)

Taking Jolly's at his word that the scene was purely a pagan celebration featuring Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, wine and revelry, paganism notwithstanding, it's not good mimetic art, as described by Aristotle:  would an international audience readily recognize the scene in question as a pagan celebration depicted or mockery Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Last Supper.' At best, Jolly's scene is poor mimetic art.  At worse, an intentional mockery of the Chistian faith.

The scene depicts a pagan celebration and the organizers are illustrating the 'absurdity of violence between human beings' - Seriously?

The pagan  pre-christian world was not predominantly peaceful. The Celts, the Norse, the Romans, these were cultures that had wars, celebrated warriors, told tales of brave warriors, and even had entire gods and goddesses dedicate to war. In Lawrence Keeley’s War Before Civilization,  he discusses how ancient times may have actually been even more violent than today.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori was prolific writer, and one of the most widely read Catholic authors, he published nine editions of his Moral Theology in his lifetime, in addition to other devotional and ascetic works and letters. Among his best known works are The Glories of Mary and The Way of the Cross, the latter still used in parishes during Lenten devotions.

He was canonized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871.

Saint Alphonsus was born in Marianella, near Naples, on 27 September 1696. He was the eldest of seven children of Giuseppe Liguori, a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys, and Anna Maria Caterina Cavalieri. Two days after he was born, he was baptized at the Church of Our Lady the Virgin as Alphonsus Mary Anthony John Cosmas Damian Michael Gaspard de' Liguori.

At the University of Naples, Alphonsus received a doctorate in both canon and civil law by acclamation, at the age of 16, but he soon gave up the practice of law for apostolic activity. He was ordained a priest, and concentrated his pastoral efforts on popular parish missions, hearing confessions, and forming Christian groups.



Vatican II said that Moral theology, should be more thoroughly nourished by Scripture, and show the nobility of the Christian vocation of the faithful and their obligation to bring forth fruit in charity for the life of the world

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Holy See ‘deplores’ offence to Christians in Opening Ceremony

The Holy See expresses sadness over some of the scenes in the opening ceremony of this year’s Olympic Games, saying that “at a prestigious event where the whole world comes together to share common values, there should be no allusions ridiculing the religious convictions of many people.”

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