While the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games generally delighted the entire world, there were a few details that made some people or categories of people choke. Among them, many Catholics, convinced that a scene in the show was aping The Lord’s Supper. The final blow for them was when a Philippe Katerine appeared from under a bell jar, completely naked and painted blue. And the eccentric singer’s explanations were not enough to close the case.
Among the outraged was the Conference of Bishops of France, which deplored “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity.” Even Donald Trump was offended, and with him, a bunch of his compatriots. It was also on the American channel CNN that Philippe Katerine made his mea culpa on Monday, responding to the accusations of blasphemy. “I am truly sorry if this shocked anyone, that was not the intention,” he assured the presenter. “I was raised in the Christian religion, and what is beautiful in this religion is forgiveness. So I ask for forgiveness, and the Christians of the world will grant it to me, I am sure.”
“Forgiveness and apology are two different things”
But we know the madman and, in his interview, we can easily detect a hint of malice. This did not escape the attention of the Conference of Bishops of France which, solicited by 20 minutesrefused to answer so as not to “sustain futile polemics indefinitely”. Because when you look more closely, you quickly realize that the artist is not apologizing at all, but is asking for forgiveness. A nuance noted by many Internet users in reaction to a tweet from our colleagues at The Team. “It’s clever of him, because in fact, forgiveness and apology are two very different things,” he explains to 20 minutes Patrick Charaudeau, linguist and researcher at the CNRS.
For the linguist, Philippe Katerine “used the language of Catholics themselves and he trapped them in the need to know and practice forgiveness,” he assures. And indeed, according to the Catholic Church of France, “forgiveness is a Christian requirement.” This notion is “so central to the Christian faith” that there exists “the sacrament of penance and reconciliation which allows sins to be forgiven,” the Church further explains.
Sincere or not, only the person concerned could answer. However, his choice to ask for forgiveness and not to apologize to Catholics is certainly not insignificant. “To apologize is to no longer fully assume what one has done,” explains Patrick Charaudeau. And the researcher draws a parallel with the Guillaume Meurice affair: “if he had apologized at the time, he would have lost his status as a comedian and would have opened the door to a criminal conviction.”
The hypothesis of malicious semantic manipulation on the part of Philippe Katerine is all the more credible since the latter had joked about the confusion that had been made between The Banquet of Bacchusobject of the painting of which it was a part, and The Lord’s Supper. For the linguist, therefore, the trap of the request for forgiveness set for offended Christians allows the debate to be closed, the latter being obliged to grant it.