Is that the first thing every disciple of Christ needs to do is state frankly that they are sinners in need of salvation. Covering that fact up is not “protecting the Church from scandal” but is, itself, scandalous.
Here another common way Catholics give scandal: with pious hagiography that papers over their sins with a bunch of pious goo:
Deacon Steven Greydanus writes of this:
Catholic whitewashing in action. Was Josephine Bakhita “rescued by an Italian family”? No, they were just the latest to enslave her. “Brought to Italy, where she became a Christian” makes it sound as if the Italian family evangelized and converted her, when in fact they left her temporarily with a community of sisters where she became a Catholic. Then the Italian family tried to reacquire her and bring her back to Sudan, but she refused to go—and an Italian court found that legally she had never been enslaved in the first place. Which, good for the Italian court; not so much for the Italian family of “rescuers.”
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The reason the gospels are credible is that they don’t lie to us about the grotesque moral failure of the apostles. The #1 failure of Catholic apologetics is that it still cannot face and take responsibility for the gross sins of Catholics. The witness of Josephine Bakhita’s Savior in her story is not the white Catholics who enslaved her but the Savior whose Spirit empowered her to defy their will to reduce her to a thing and her gutsy courage to say “Yes” to that Savior. He was, himself, a victim of Empire who was murdered on a cross specially reserved for slaves. Until those of us complicit in such structures of sin can stop lying that, really, when you think about it, we are the ones who were Josephine’s real saviors and slavery was our deeply Christian gift to her, we will never cease being Liars for Jesus. Enough with the bullshit. Repent and believe the Gospel this Christmas.
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