2024-08-05 04:50:23
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the Pope Francisco this Thursday to speak out against the “perverse propaganda“spread, according to him, during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
At one point during the ceremony, dancers and drag queens appeared gathered around a table, a scene that was supposedly reminiscent of the last supper that Jesus Christ shared with the apostles, according to Christian tradition.
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The organizers said they intended to depict a pagan festival and did not intend to offend anyone. However, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Catholic groups, US presidential candidate Donald Trump and the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, among others, criticized the passage, calling it “disrespectful.”
“President Erdogan said that under the pretext of freedom of expression and tolerance, human dignity was trampled on and religious and moral values were ridiculed, offending Muslims and Christians around the world,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
“He felt it was necessary to raise our voices together,” the statement added, launching an appeal to the Pope.
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Erdogan, who had announced on Tuesday his intention to summon the Pope to denounce the “immorality” of the event, lamented “the undermining of religious values, the perverse propaganda and the moral collapse towards which the world is falling with the Olympic Games,” according to the statement.
The Turkish president, who is often critical of Turkey’s LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual and queer) community, was due to attend the ceremony but said a warning from his granddaughter dissuaded him from going.
EAM
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2024-08-05 04:50:23