A video shows Christians gathering in Paris in response to the Olympics opening ceremony.
While the video does show a genuine gathering of Christians in the centre of Paris, the video was posted on 25 May, months before the Olympics began.
A video of a Christian congregation singing and holding banners and flags in Paris has been shared widely with a false claim that it shows a response to the Olympic opening ceremony.
In the clip, a large number of people are gathered outside the Palais de Chaillot, with the Eiffel Tower in the background, holding signs saying “Jesus loves you” in French. A man is singing and playing guitar.
It has been shared widely on Facebook with claims it was in reaction to the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris on 26 July.
A caption with one post sharing the video on Facebook says: “A HUGE worship service praising the mighty name of Jesus happening in Paris after the satanic and blasphemous Olympics Opening Ceremony. This is how Christians fight their battles!”
But the video was filmed two months before, and is therefore not related to the opening ceremony.
Full Fact has found the same video on the Instagram account of a Swiss evangelist, who shared it on 25 May this year. He shared it again more recently, saying in the caption that it “didn’t happen these days in reaction and against the Olympic games [sic]”.
The event depicted in the video was ‘March Pour Jesus 2024’ (March for Jesus), and similar gatherings reportedly took place in Lille, Nantes, Metz and Strasbourg.
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Organisers of the Olympic Games have apologised after a scene with drag artists included in the opening ceremony was perceived by some Christian groups—including France’s Catholic Church—to be a parody of ‘The Last Supper’ painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
A post on the Olympic Games official X account, said on the night of the ceremony that the scene was “the interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus” which “makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings” but a spokesperson for the games said on Sunday: “If people have taken any offence, we of course are really sorry.”
We often see videos being shared with misleading captions in response to high profile events, and have previously checked other claims about France; including a video of pro-Palestinian march wrongly shared as ‘victory rally’ for France’s new government, and a misleading video of Marine Le Pen supposedly ‘crying’ about her party’s election result.
It's important to consider whether what you see is accurate before sharing it online. Our guides to spotting misleading images and videos can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because the video was filmed in May 2024, months before the Olympic opening ceremony on 26 July.
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