Five Ways – Aug 24

August 19, 2024

In our July Five ways, I included Bishop Robert Barron’s rejection of the way the Olympic opening ceremony insulted the Last Supper.  Our first item below is from our Oblate of Mary Seamus Finn, giving another view also criticizing the Olympic organizers.

Let us remember that the time from Aug. 15, Mary’s Assumption, to Aug. 22, Her Queenship, reminds us that she is the Mother of Evangelization, Christian Unity, and Interfaith Dialogue.  The website Mission-Unity-Dialogue has a special page about this: www.harrywinter.org.

Attached are three items regarding families where one parent is Catholic, and another belongs to a different Christian Church.  Mine is 9 pages long; the other 3 are much shorter.  I welcome your comments on this increasing trend, which is challenging to many in all Christian Churches.

Including religion as a core part of DEI is the trend

Dear Seamus Finn,

A performance during the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics triggered a backlash as many saw a sketch meant to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as being offensive and biased. Many took the sketch to be a parody of the Last Supper of Christ, which organizers denied being the intent.

Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps apologized on Sunday for those offended by the scene. “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly [the ceremony’s artistic director], we really did try to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps said. “… If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really, really sorry.”

Jolly said that religious subversion had never been his intention. “We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that.”

However, rather than being avant-garde and inclusive, the Olympic organizers appear to be behind the curve when it comes to DEI — what they purportedly were trying to promote. The latest data show a significant surge in Fortune 500 companies including religion as part of their DEI initiatives, which helps them avoid such offensive and COSTLY mistakes (one Olympic sponsor has already withdrawn in reaction to the sketch).

Indeed, the world’s biggest companies are embracing religiously inclusive workplaces at a faster pace than ever before, according to the 2024 Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index and Monitor, which we released in May. The REDI report finds that 429 (85.8%) Fortune 500 companies now mention or illustrate religion as part of their broader commitment to diversity, more than double the number in 2022 (202 companies, or 40.4%). According to the REDI Index, Accenture and American Airlines are the most faith-friendly Global Fortune 500 companies.

Perhaps the Olympic organizers have some things to learn from companies that are getting DEI.

Interchurch Families: Problem or Gift

1. Winter-Changes in Marriage
2. Connell-Walking the path to Christian Unity 1
3. Vernon-journey
4. Woodruff-Personal Journey

Many thanks to all who commented on the July 30 Five Ways e-letter.

In Christs Love,

Fr. Harry