Last summer, the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony unveiled its version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. I watched from Singapore with disquiet, not only at its mockery of the meal at which Christ instituted the Eucharist. I saw how the performance had been prefigured by practices at Catholic Mass within the developed world, and considered what Singapore’s case might portend for the Church elsewhere outside the West.
The Opening Ceremony artistic director Thomas Jolly has denied using Leonardo’s painting as inspiration for the performance. It bears pointing out that in the visual and performing arts (assuming the Paris performance was artistic), adaptation from an earlier artwork—whether intended by the artist, and even without their acknowledgement of adaptation—once perceived, testifies to the influence of the earlier work. This, too, applies when the later work contradicts the spirit of the earlier. Art history is about the contributions of individual artworks in any way to how later generations make or understand images. Therefore, the mere identification of the performance with The Last Supper is de facto recognition of the influence of the painting, on which the performance was a new take.
Yes, I’ve Seen Paris—in Singapore
The Olympic “Last Supper”, shocking as it was to Catholics, had actually drawn strength from irreverence that increasingly accompanies celebrations of the Eucharist (also called the Mass) in the developed world. In Singapore as across the First World, there are those still attending Mass reverently, and irreverence here might seem tame by Western standards. As in the West, though, this irreverence stems most immediately from poor understanding of what the Mass is.
What, indeed, is the Catholic Mass? It is the holy sacrifice of Christ’s body, blood, soul and divinity offered to God his Father, in atonement for man’s sin and for man’s salvation. Masses re-enact that sacrifice instituted at the Last Supper and completed in the crucifixion. The Roman crucifixion can only be understood as a Jewish priestly sacrifice because of Jesus’ words at supper, when he offered the gathered disciples his very body and blood under the accidents of bread and wine. Just as he offered them then, so can Jesus, who is God the Son, through the words of a Catholic priest transform bread and wine into his body and blood during Mass now. The Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324) and the central rite of the Catholic Church. It does not merely represent (stand for) Christ’s sacrifice, but makes present the original sacrifice. The consecrated bread and wine do not symbolise sacrificial offerings. They contain the Real Presence of Jesus for consumption by Catholics in a state of grace, as an act of the New Covenant binding together God and his family the Church.
I once saw a priest tossing unconsecrated hosts like poker chips upon the altar. On another occasion, I witnessed a boy using a consecrated host—again, poker chip-style—to amuse his friends. Their giggles ceased when he accidentally dropped it. Retrieving it from the floor, he suddenly became aware of something having gone awry, and was stumped for what next to do. Bearing down on him, I instructed him to consume it immediately.
Consider if the treatment of hosts, unconsecrated or consecrated, and the congregation’s attire, ought to reflect the worship of the God who in a Catholic church is depicted nearly naked (for modesty’s sake) and nailed to an altar cross. Complete nakedness was the actual state of a crucified criminal; Christ therein supremely embodied self-giving and atonement. Do Bermudas, pyjama-like apparel, beach slippers and T-shirts with inappropriate images or slogans like Suck my toe do justice to the execution of Our Lord, the turning point of human history? Do bare shoulders, cleavages, midriffs and barely concealed posteriors detract from the image of the suffering Christ? Are displays of Christ’s nakedness and those of Mass attendees differently motivated?
Attitudes towards Mass demonstrated by poor dress and handling of Holy Communion, sexualised bodies, diversions, and convenient arrivals and departures—all these took supercharged form in the Olympic “Last Supper” parody.
Given the gravity of Mass, should not attendees arrive early to compose themselves and even go for confession, rather than being habitually late, including when citing young children as the reason? Conversely, Mass ends only after the final blessing; why do the “Judas shuffle” of leaving immediately after Holy Communion, like the disciple at supper who, “after receiving the morsel … immediately went out” to betray Jesus (John 13:21–30)?
What is Mass but the apocalyptic “marriage supper of the Lamb” to which the blessed are invited; where heaven opens to him who is of the earth, as was John the author of Revelation. There, Jesus, robed in the blood of his martyrdom defeats his enemy the beast, while the “sword that issues from his mouth” slays its armies (Rev 19:9–21), this sword being the “word of God” of the Church’s teachings, “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12) of other provenance. Should not invitees to this supernatural feast be therefore fully attentive, rather than absorbed with matters like texting, chatting or snacking? The Code of Canon Law states that “a person who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain for at least one hour before holy communion from any food and drink, except for only water and medicine” (CIC 919:1).
Attitudes towards Mass demonstrated by poor dress and handling of Holy Communion, sexualised bodies, diversions, and convenient arrivals and departures—all these took supercharged form in the Olympic “Last Supper” parody. Its fast and loose remake of Leonardo’s painting to accommodate woke inclusivity and carnal self-indulgence originated from the rejection of Christ’s spirit of total self-giving, the spirit that should also characterise Mass attendance. Gone, too, from the performance were the humility and chaste heterosexuality that rightly correlate to worship of the Incarnation (God in the flesh) present in the Eucharist. The Paris performance simply distilled today’s disordered spirit of irreverence at Mass in the developed world. Rather than implying lack of artistic culpability in the offensive display, this means conditions that Catholics have allowed to fester provide the necessary basic environment from which sexual licence and distortion might flourish outside the Church.
A Fortunate Time and Place to Be Catholic
Singapore, the scene of said irreverence, has a vibrant and growing Catholic community. It originated in early 19th-century Portuguese and French activity on the island, thence becoming this Asian nation’s most Western-oriented yet statistically multiethnic confession.
Roman Catholicism here is a minority faith, officially estimated by 2020 to have attained 395,000 adherents, 6.9 per cent of Singapore’s then total population of 5.69 million. From 2015 to 2020, there were an estimated 1,000 yearly conversions, in a country sized at 93 per cent of New York City’s land area. As of 2020, Catholicism jointly with other Christians formed the third-fastest growing religious grouping by percentage of Singapore’s resident population (hereafter meaning citizens and permanent residency holders, and excluding foreigners). The only other groupings experiencing such growth were firstly, those termed of No Religion, and secondly, Islam.
Thirty-two Catholic churches across this 734.3 square-kilometre island with its own archdiocese are accessible by efficient public transport; another is planned. All churches have at least two or three priests and over a quarter have more. Around 170 priests, Singaporean and foreign, serve the archdiocese. Masses are well attended. The number of English Masses furnishing the Sunday obligation is at least three per church, with over three-quarters of churches having four or five. Weekday Masses are abundant. Many of these 32 churches host a smaller number of Asian- and other European-language Masses. On most Sundays, just one Traditional Latin Mass for the whole archdiocese is celebrated.
The very forces enabling Singapore’s Catholic sphere of influence paradoxically threaten to fracture it. Irreverence at Mass arises from the conjunction of these forces.
There are 53 Catholic preschools and schools. The Church has historically been a major provider of education for Catholics and non-Catholics alike, as well as services of healthcare and 47 humanitarian organisations.
The reach of Catholics and Catholic school graduates is disproportionate to the religion’s minority status. They have gained prominence in government, the private sector and industry, philanthropy, medicine, journalism, academia, culture and sport. Included are a head of state, ministers and a prime minister, members of parliament, a head of civil service, chief justices, diplomatic ambassadors to Britain, Russia, Japan and the United States, a United Nations under-secretary-general, chairmen of Singapore Airlines and the China section of ExxonMobil (companies among the top in their respective fields), senior news editors, presidents of universities, a Brookings Institution scholarly chair, internationally renowned musical performers and composers, and the country’s recent first Olympic gold medallist—to cite some examples. These at very least suggest correlation or causality between Catholic academic education or values, and the ability to thrive professionally.
Roman Catholicism Rides the Asian Tiger
The very forces enabling Singapore’s Catholic sphere of influence paradoxically threaten to fracture it. Irreverence at Mass arises from the conjunction of these forces.
The national work ethic accords well with Matthew’s parable whereby servants who create more from what they are given are rewarded (Matt 25:14–30). Catholics have participated highly advantageously in the hard graft of Singapore’s export-led industrialisation since national independence in 1965, gained after a two-year federation with Malaysia and the preceding British colonial rule from 1824. Census statistics of Singapore’s resident population aged 15 and above in 2020 indicate, for example, that nearly half (44.9 per cent) of the Catholics constituting 7 per cent of that population segment were university-educated. Occupancy rates of Catholics in the top four of the country’s nine tiers of housing (comprising most private and/or landed housing) were disproportionately higher than the rates of six of the country’s nine named religious groupings.
Such achievements, however, have tended to breed worldliness which Catholicism may mitigate but not eradicate. Moreover, worldly advancement has contributed to priestly and religious vocations today being a fraction of what they were in earlier decades.
Prospering since the 1980s as an Asian Tiger has enabled Singapore’s rapid technological innovation. Societies with rapid change are prone to reduced regard for the role of elders and other authority figures, because of the perception that change quickly renders their wisdom or competencies obsolete. Today’s “distraction” with smartphones at Mass is really the replacement of Catholic authority with tech. Yet, my experience with asking younger people, including adults, to desist from counter-liturgical activities shows that most respond positively to seniority exercised with charity. Problems arise more when parents resent such intervention. Two generations ago, they would have been glad for other adults to share in the reprimand of straying offspring. This reflects the increasing abandonment of parental authority over youth still open to correction. It may be just a matter of time before those youth confirm parental figures—including the Reverend Fathers of Mother Church—in having “no right” to instruct them.
The momentum of Western influence despite Western decline signals that unless the crisis of Western civilisation is checked by a thorough Catholic resurgence on all major fronts, the lack of respect for Catholic faith manifested in Paris will increasingly resound in the Church in Singapore and elsewhere outside the West.
Simultaneously, it seems many among the clergy, voluntarily or involuntarily, are surrendering their ability to effectively, concertedly and sustainedly admonish congregations about irreverence. That surrender, combined with increasing use of the term inclusive (as a desirable value) in Catholic contexts like Mass, is helping to convey the impression to many that inclusivity means what the world wants it to mean: compassion unbounded by Catholic moral discipline, blessed with Catholic religiosity. One infers the multiple breaches in defence of the faith in how at least one local Catholic bookseller now stocks works by Fr. James Martin, SJ (notorious for his gay-rights activism) on ostensibly non-gay-related subjects, or how films containing his presences wallpapered with the gay rainbow have been screening directly before some Masses. Overarching all these are deficiencies in catechesis which have produced numerous Catholics who may be masters of secular professions but primary schoolers in understanding of faith.
There is a warranted assumption that while the Church in the West struggles against decline, in Asia and Africa it grows and prospers. Troublingly, this Asian Tiger may instead provide a bellwether for how gains in non-Western Catholic communities could be short-lived, if not continually buttressed with strong, orthodox religious instruction and practice, as the world adopts characteristics of the modern West (industrialisation, universal education, material prosperity, technological advancement, individual autonomy over family or group cohesion, sexual liberalisation).
The Church in Singapore has long been a conduit of good fostered by the Church in the West, including help for the poor and marginalised from debilitating suffering; God-centred rather than academically utilitarian educational excellence; self-control in sexuality and personal conduct; and overall, Christian faith and morality as worthy societal contributions. There is no guarantee, however, that advantages conferred by Catholicism cannot be reversed, especially when secularism pervading the Church in the West combines with local traits such as the heady materialism affecting societies emerging from Third World status as Singapore has. Indeed, Western moral upheavals pose the danger of becoming the developmental process in the Church outside the West.
Furthermore, the momentum of Western influence despite Western decline signals that unless the crisis of Western civilisation is checked by a thorough Catholic resurgence on all major fronts, the lack of respect for Catholic faith manifested in Paris will increasingly resound in the Church in Singapore and elsewhere outside the West. As in the Catholic West, so might it be with much of the Catholic rest.
Rachel Lucy Choo has postgraduate degrees in art history and strategic studies. Her earlier article The Implications of the Olympic “Last Supper” Run Deeper, about the artistic and behavioural roots of the Paris performance and their significance for the Church in the developed world, was published by The Remnant on August 7, 2024.
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