Video doesn’t show mass prayer after 2024 Olympics ceremony
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Video shows “thousands of Christians in France gathered to pray after Olympics opening mocked Jesus Christ.”
A light show is projected from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 26, 2024. (AP)
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This video was taken in 2022, so it predates the Paris Olympics. It shows thousands of people gathered at the Sanctuary of Our Lady Lourdes in Lourdes, France, for the Feast of the Assumption, which commemorates the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, ascended to heaven after she died.
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Some social media users shared another video claiming it showed a “worship service” following the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. But this video was taken in May.
A portion of the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony drew outrage from some Christians who criticized the show as mocking a sacred scene depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, “The Last Supper.” Whether the ceremony aimed to offend is a matter of debate. Nevertheless, some social media users shared a video that they claimed showed thousands gathering in France to pray in response.
“Breaking: Thousands of Christians in France gathered to pray after Olympics opening mocked Jesus Christ,” read text across a video shared in a July 29 Instagram post. The clip showed a large crowd of people holding candles and singing “Ave Maria.”
Other Instagram users shared the same video. These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The same video also circulated on X.
(Screengrabs from Instagram and X)
Although this video does show thousands of people praying in France, the gathering predates this year’s Olympics.
A reverse-image search using Google Images found that the video was taken in 2022 at the Sanctuary of Our Lady Lourdes in Lourdes, France.
On Aug. 14, 2022, the sanctuary shared the video on X with the caption, “Beautiful and happy Feast of the Assumption to all. In union of prayer with all Catholics of the world. May the Virgin Mary shine in your hearts.” (The caption was translated from French using Google Translate.)
This video was also shared Aug. 18, 2022, on Facebook. The Feast of the Assumption is a religious gathering that commemorates the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, ascended to heaven after she died.
Some X users shared a different video and claimed it, too, showed people gathered in Paris for a “worship service” in response to the Olympics opening ceremony.
But this video also predates the Summer Olympics. A watermark on the video names the Instagram account @jeanluctrachsel.ministries, which originally posted the video May 25. The video shows a crowd gathered for the March for Jesus, held the same day in Paris.
Some Christian religious leaders have spoken out against the Olympics opening ceremony performance that included drag queens and other performers. But we found no credible news reports that thousands of people in France gathered to pray in response to the ceremony.
We rate the claim that a video shows “thousands of Christians in France gathered to pray after (the) Olympics opening mocked Jesus Christ” False.
Instagram post (archived version), July 29, 2024
Instagram post, July 29, 2024
Instagram post, July 29, 2024
Instagram post, May 25, 2024
X post, July 28, 2024
X post, July 28, 2024
X post, July 28, 2024
X post, July 28, 2024
X post, Aug. 14, 2022
X post, July 28, 2024
X post, July 28, 2024
X post, July 28, 2024
Reverse-image search using Google Images, July 29, 2024
CBN News, “25,000 Flood Streets of Paris to March for Jesus, Many ‘Saved, Healed, Baptized in the Holy Spirit’,” May 29, 2024
Fox News, “Christian faith leaders react to alleged parody of Last Supper at Paris Olympics: ‘Grotesque mockery’,” July 30, 2024
Vatican News, “French Bishops lament ‘scenes mocking Christianity’ at Olympic Ceremony,” July 28, 2024
The New York Times, “An Olympics Scene Draws Scorn. Did It Really Parody ‘The Last Supper’?,” July 28, 2024
Agence France-Presse, “Video does not show Christian demonstration after Olympic opening ceremony,” July 29, 2024
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