Hello John,
<p>It was around 7pm, and I had just finished packing my suitcase to head out in two days for the field for a March For Life, when I got the call:</p> <p>“Our lawyer just called—the hearing is tomorrow. Can you go to Paris?”<br /> “Yes, of course, I’ll make it work. This is important.”</p> <p><strong>We’re finally going to be heard!</strong></p> <p><strong>Do you remember when our Christian faith was mocked before the entire world during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games?</strong></p> <p>CitizenGO was the first to react. And the only organization to take legal action against the blasphemous parody of the Last Supper—an offense that deeply wounded Christians across the globe.</p> <p>I remember it well—because I was there. I was part of the group arrested and thrown into a jail cell for standing up against this mockery.</p> <p>And as I sat in that courtroom, I realized, <strong>almost one year had passed since that awful day we were handcuffed and humiliated for daring to defend our faith.<br /><br /><a href= "[link removed]" target="_blank" ><img src="[link removed] 2025-08-06 9.46.26 AM.png?version=0" alt="" width="198" height="350" constrain="true" imagepreview="false" border="" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></strong><strong>A full year since the world watched, and no one took responsibility.</strong></p> <p>But this hearing wasn’t about our arrest. It was about the message—the insult—that was broadcast worldwide, and whether the French State would take any responsibility for allowing it.</p> <p>I met our lawyer at the historic Palais Royal in Paris. </p> <p>The courtroom was elegant—huge windows, gilded ceilings, and a sense of gravitas. I tried to discreetly snap a photo for you—but was quickly told that wasn’t allowed.</p> <p>Administrative appeals follow one after another. Nothing particularly exciting—until suddenly:</p> <p>“CitizenGO.” Our case was up!</p> <p><strong>Three minutes. That’s all it took.</strong></p> <p>Then we’re out of the courtroom. I’m not sure if I understood… and yet, I did.</p> <p>Our complaint—addressed to the French state and the Olympic Games Committee, the organizers of the Paris Olympics—<strong>had just been declared inadmissible by the state, because “it doesn’t concern them”!</strong></p> <p><img src="[link removed]" alt="" width="350" height="116" constrain="true" imagepreview="false" border="" /></p> <p>Translation:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Article 1:</strong> <em>The petition submitted by the CitizenGO foundation and others is rejected.</em></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Article 2:</strong> <em>This decision will be notified to the CitizenGO foundation, named as the first petitioner, on behalf of all petitioners, and to the Minister of Sports, Youth, and Community Life.</em></p> <p><strong>Yes, you read that right. </strong></p> <p>They said it didn’t concern them, because—even though the state was involved in organizing the Games—they felt they weren’t directly responsible. Decisions supposedly fell to the Olympic Games Committee.</p> <p>They basically shrugged off any responsibility—despite the fact that the <strong>State helped stage and promote the Olympic Opening Ceremony!</strong></p> <p>They simply washed their hands of it.<br /><br /><img src="[link removed]" alt="" width="350" height="206" constrain="true" imagepreview="false" border="" /><br /></p> <p>Translation:</p> <ol> <li><em>The applicants are requesting the annulment, for abuse of power, of the decision by which the State allegedly organized or authorized, as part of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26, 2024, a performance which, according to them, was a parody of the Last Supper.</em></li> <li><em>Contrary to what is claimed, neither the international nature of the ceremony, nor the statements by which the authorities announced that it would be held on the Seine, nor those expressing satisfaction after the same ceremony, nor the fact that some protesters were arrested and forced to leave, nor any document in the file reveals the existence of a decision by which the State would have organized or authorized the content of the contested performance.</em></li> </ol> <p>As a result, the request is manifestly inadmissible and cannot be remedied during the proceedings, and must therefore be rejected.</p> <p><strong>Can you imagine? </strong></p> <p>One of the most watched performances in the world. A grotesque mockery of the core of our Christian faith. <strong>And yet the government, which facilitated the entire spectacle, claims it had nothing to do with it.</strong></p> <p><strong>Some hypocrisy, that is!</strong></p> <p>All these top officials simply brushed off the offense done to us!</p> <p>As if Christ’s image, distorted and paraded for laughs, was nothing - worse still … something just normal.</p> <p>It’s infuriating. And heartbreaking.</p> <p>This was more than a legal case. It was a chance for the State to recognize that Christians, too, deserve respect.</p> <p>Instead, they chose denial.</p> <p>They chose cowardice.</p> <p>But I want you to know something.</p> <p>Even though the court turned its back on us, we won’t turn our backs on this fight.</p> <p>Not now. Not ever.</p> <p>The deeper the hypocrisy, the stronger our voice must be. <strong>The more they try to silence us, the louder we must speak. We stood up in Paris—and we will stand again, wherever Christian values are mocked, wherever our faith is trampled.</strong></p>
Thank you for standing with me. We have much more to do.
<i> Anne, Matilde, Marisi, Sebastian, Chris, and Jason — the six of us who were arrested one year ago — and the rest of the CitizenGO team</i>
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