Everyone knows about the cover-up of the priestly abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, and the great damage it has caused.
But did you know that the Church has been engaged in another, even bigger cover-up? This cover-up has received little attention, but in the long run it may prove to be much more damaging than the first in terms of lives ruined and lives lost.
The cover-up I refer to is the whitewashing of Islam that began with the Second Vatican Council and continues to this day.
It began with the best of intentions, and the main intention was to improve relations between Catholics and Muslims. Thus, the Council Fathers drew up a document that emphasized supposed commonalities between the two faiths, and ignored the deep divisions. Catholics were informed that, like us, Muslims worship one God, revere Jesus, honor Mary, pray regularly, fast, and follow the same moral code as Christians.
These were half-truths at best, but this highly misleading picture of Islam soon entered the curriculums of Catholic schools, universities, and seminaries. What the Vatican Council said about Islam seemed to fit in nicely with the great emphasis on tolerance and inclusion that marked the sixties and the decades that followed.
Then came 9/11, and suddenly a great many people began to have second thoughts about Islam. But by this time the Church was so committed to a rose-colored view of Islam that Church leaders merely reinforced the secular elite view that 9/11 was an aberration that did not reflect Islamic belief.
Thus, Catholics were informed that “Islam” means “peace,” that “violence has nothing to do with Islam,” and that the 9/11 attack had been carried out by a “handful of radicals” who had “hijacked” their religion.
The trouble with this naïve interpretation of events was that terror attacks continued—in America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Moreover, the terrorist leaders seemed much better acquainted with the teachings of Islam than moderate Muslims. As it turned out, 9/11 was not an aberration at all. Rather, it was more in keeping with Islamic teachings and traditions than the whitewashed version.
Despite the accumulating evidence that violence does have something to do with Islam, Catholic leaders did not reconsider their Pollyannish view of Islam. Instead, their simplistic notions became the semi-official position of the Vatican.
In short, the Church became complicit in covering-up the dark and violent side of Islam. And that’s where the scandal comes in. Many lives have been lost over the last 25 years because the Church seemed to be vouching for the peaceful nature of Islam. As a consequence, Catholics all over the world let down their guard against Islamic aggression, and many paid the price.
What the Church taught about Islam had left them unprepared for the reality of Islam. Thus, Europeans were slow to realize that letting millions of Muslim migrants cross their borders would result in murder and mayhem in once peaceful cities and towns. Knife attacks became common. So did suicide attacks, vehicular attacks, and attacks on Christmas markets and concert halls. In the UK, some 250,000 English school girls were raped and prostituted by Muslim “grooming gangs” over a period of 25 years.
In Asia and Africa, unprepared Catholics and other Christians have suffered even greater persecution at the hands of Muslim jihadists.
In Africa, the assaults have reached genocidal proportions. It’s estimated that in Nigeria alone, some 4,000 Christians are killed for their faith each year. Meanwhile other live in constant fear of machete and rifle attacks, of burned-out villages, of abduction, rape, and forced conversions. Just two weeks ago, Open Doors International reported that 70 Christians were found dead in a church in the Congo. They had been beheaded by Islamic jihadists. You may not have heard of this latest atrocity because the mainstream media aren’t particularly interested in what happens to African Christians. In addition, many Catholic media outlets avoid stories that put Islam in a bad light, preferring instead to run articles on Lenten recipes, and other “crucial” topics.
Meanwhile, whenever the Vatican comments on the “conflict” in Africa, it invariably places the blame, not on Islamic ideology, but—believe it or not—on climate change!
The Church’s cover-up of Islamic aggression has been going on for decades, and it’s been accompanied by a misleading campaign to portray Islam as a fellow “Abrahamic religion” not unlike Catholicism. It’s a scandal of epic proportions, but it will only grow worse until Catholics find the courage to talk about it.
Pictured above: A covered-up young lady
Photo credit: Pixabay
