A Paris 2024 representative apologized Sunday for a depiction of the Last Supper during the Olympics opening ceremonies that a U.S. bishop called “heinous” and “a mockery of the Mass.”

“Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think that [Opening Ceremonies Artistic Director] Thomas Jolly really tried, to intend to celebrate community and tolerance,” said Anne Descamps, Paris 2024 communications director. “If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really sorry.” Descamps spoke in English at the International Olympic Committee’s daily news briefing on Sunday, July 28.

Descamps also quoted the results of a survey conducted by the IOC that found viewers of the opening ceremonies on July 26 were overwhelmingly positive, with 96 percent of the French audience surveyed who felt the ceremony was a success and that it was “well organized.”

Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, chairman of the board of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., spoke out on July 27 against the depiction with a special call to prayer for the faithful based on his prayer at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress just one week prior.

“Nearly 1 billion men, women, and children, in person and through live telecast, witnessed the public mockery of the Mass, the ‘source and summit of the Christian life,'” Bishop Cozzens said in a statement issued through the National Eucharistic Congress.

“During the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics, the famous DaVinci Masterpiece ‘The Last Supper’ was depicted in heinous fashion,” he said, “leaving us in such shock, sorrow, and righteous anger that words cannot describe it.”

The French bishops also issued a statement on July 27 condemning the mockery of Christianity at the opening of the Olympic Games.

While the ceremony was a “marvelous display of beauty and joy, rich in emotion and universally acclaimed,” they said, it “unfortunately included scenes of mockery and derision of Christianity, which we deeply regret.” They thanked members of other religious denominations “who have expressed their solidarity with us.”

Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard of Digne, the special representative of the Holy See for the 2024 Paris Olympics, said he was “deeply hurt” by the depiction. Many U.S. bishops took to social media to speak out against the scene and ask the faithful to pray for healing and reparation.

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OSV News contributed to this article.