Modesty in dressing.

-The Sacred Congregation of Religious, under Pius XI, January 12, 1930

"One cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and station. Made foolish by a desire to please, they do not see to what degree the indecency of their clothing shocks every honest man and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for such apparel as for a grave fault against Christian modesty. Now it does not suffice to exhibit themselves on public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of churches, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Holy Altar, where one receives the Heavenly Author of Purity."

- Pope Benedict XV

"As long as certain audacious modes of dress remain the sad privilege of women of dubious reputation and almost a sign by which they may be known, no-one else would dare to wear that same dress upon herself: but the moment that it appears upon persons beyond all reproach, she will hesitate no longer to follow the current, a current which will drag her perhaps to the worst fall." -Pope Pius XII, May 22, 1941

"O Christian mothers, if you knew what a future of anxieties and perils, of ill-guarded shame you prepare for your sons and daughters, imprudently getting them accustomed to live scantily dressed and making them lose the sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves and you would dread the harm you are making for yourselves, the harm which you are causing these children, whom Heaven has entrusted to you to be brought up as Christians." - Pope Pius XII

"Certain fashions will be introduced which will offend Our Divine Lord very much. Those who serve God ought not to follow these fashions. Our Lord is always the same." -Our Lady of Fatima, warning the people of the 1920s of the fashions that were to come for Catholic women. It wasn't a warning of the fashions that were to come for protestants and pagans since they were already indulging in indecent fashions. It was a warning to the Children of God, who are going to imitate them.


So Catholic women have to ask themselves who are they using as their Perfect Model for modesty, the Blessed Virgin Mary or the feminist infidel Amelia Bloomer?

The reason for covering the body in the first place is to "unshape" it. If people think wearing skin-tight clothing serves the purpose of covering, they are dead wrong. Skin-tight does nothing but uncover the shape of the body. It is as if one were to wear nothing at all.

The first step of the feminist influence in the Church was Catholic women wearing pants. It would follow next that there would soon be female lectors, nun's wearing pants, altar girls, female "Doctors" of the Church, and maybe Priestesses with a Popess!

Rebellion has to start somewhere, and if you don't nip it in the bud, it will continue to grow.

Before Adam fell, Eve sinned first, and it was through her that the father of mankind gave us original sin. Vatican II's evil, done by men, would never have happened so soon or at all, if the backbone (women) of the Church had not first fallen. Imitating Eve in falling first, Catholic women of the years preceding this Council already were becoming lax in their modesty. Without the strength of modest women, men would fall into lechery and begin to become blind to what the Faith is, and isn't.

Here is a quote that I came across while reading G. K. Chesterton's famous book, "What's Wrong with the World"...

"...And since we are talking here chiefly in types and symbols, perhaps as good an embodiment as any of the idea may be found in the mere fact of a woman wearing a skirt. It is highly typical of the rabid plagiarism which now passes everywhere for emancipation, that a little while ago it was common for an "advanced" woman to claim the right to wear trousers; a right about as GROTESQUE as the right to wear a false nose...It is quite certain that the skirt means female dignity..." -pgs. 110-111

I would like to conclude with a quote of a Catholic prophecy sent in by one of our concerned readers...


PROPHECY OF ST. NILUS

Realizing that St. Nilus is scarcely known to a large part of the Church, a brief sketch of his life, taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1911 copyright edition), is related below:

"St. Nilus was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. He was an officer at the Court of Constantinople, married, with two sons. While St. John Chrysostom was patriarch, before his exile (398-403), he directed Nilus in the study of Scripture and in works of piety. St. Nilus left his wife and one son and took the other, Theodulos, with him to Mt. Sinai to be a monk. The Bishop of Eleusa ordained both St. Nilus and his son to the priesthood. The mother and other son also embraced the religious life in Egypt. From his monastery at Sinai, St. Nilus was a well-known person throughout the Eastern Church; by his writings and correspondence he played an important part in the history of his time. He was known as a theologian, Biblical scholar and ascetic writer, so people of all kinds, from the emperor down wrote to consult him. His numerous works, including a multitude of letters, consist of denunciations of heresy, paganism, abuses of discipline and crimes, of rules and principles of asceticism, especially maxims about the religious life. He warns and threatens people in high places, abbots and bishops, governors and princes, even the emperor himself, without fear. He kept up a correspondence with Gaina, a leader of the Goths, endeavoring to convert him from Arianism. He denounced vigorously the persecution of St. John Chrysostom both to the Emperor Arcadius and to his courtiers. St. Nilus must be counted as one of the leading ascetic writers of the fifth century. His feast is kept on November 12th in the Byzantine Calendar; he is commemorated also in the Roman Martyrology on the same date. St. Nilus probably died around the year 430 as there is no evidence of his life after that."

Now the prophecy:

"After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time for the Advent of the Antichrist approaches, people's minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society. At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism and equally of remorse. The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. Then they will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of lightening their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints. And all this will result from the fact that the Antichrist wants to be Lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation with another from one end of the earth to the other. At that time men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is deceit of the Antichrist. And, the impious one! -- he will so complete science with vanity that it will go off the right path and lead people to lose faith in the existence of God in three hypostases. Then the All-good God will see the downfall of the human race and will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible... then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear and kill the perverter and his servants."

In essence the prophecy has basically said that Catholics (those who are orthodox in the faith) would change the traditions and morals of the Church and specifically points out that one of these is *modesty*. It even remarkably states that with these new fashions you could not see the difference between the masculine and feminine clothing as to blur what sex the person was. Also that if you tried to correct these people that they would feel no shame in what they were doing, and classify it as the norm or at least trivial. If you tried to ask advice from the Catholic Pastor, although good with knowing dogma, they would fail to distinguish the "right-hand way from the left" in morality. These are wicked times and we need to, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle," (2 Thess. ii, 14), if we are ever going to be saved, despite the reluctance our Pastors have to condemn these modern fashions right up from the beginning of this century. In their giving us the "greenlight" in these matters, "easing" our conscience, they are doing more harm than the apparent good. People forget that although the Saints might have differed on different points of dogmatic doctrine (prior to the Church explicitly ending the differences with a magisterial decree), they all agreed as to what was modest in attire. There was not a single Canonized Saint or Church Father who deviated from the decency code in over 1800 years. We as Catholics are not allowed to differ from their perspectives. We are to condemn and to condone what they condemned and condoned. It is when we deviate from THEIR NORM, that we can say we are no longer of their One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Faith. For in order to be Catholic we must be of the same religious body, and in order to be of the same body, we must profess the same religion of Christ in Faith *and* morals. We must use the traditions and habits of the Saints, that they all had in common, throughout the centuries of the Church. If we fail in achieving this common denominator, we can expect to fail in achieving our Supernatural End as well.

- CATHOLIC APOLOGETICS -

http://www.catholicapologetics.info/morality/modesty/cathdres.htm

Letter to a Young Girl.

ALICE VON HILDEBRAND

How beautiful when a bride can say to her husband on their wedding night, “I have kept this garden virginal for you, and now, with God's permission I am giving you its key, knowing that you will enter into it with reverence.” This touching piece of writing would be a lovely gift of truth for a young girl or even for a young boy to read in the proper context.

My dear young friend:

I know that young girls like secrets, and I am going to share one with you. God has chosen your sex for you; He made you to be a girl. You know that girls today are often told by feminists that the Church is “sexist” and has “discriminated” against them from the very beginning. She is accused of having treated them as “inferior,” less talented, less gifted, made to be man's servants. She has denied them power in the Church, and prohibited them from receiving the highest honor, to be ordained to the priesthood and so on.

No doubt, you have heard this siren song, because the media are good when it comes to spreading this negative message. And this is why, to rebut these false claims, I would like to make you realize that women — far from being discriminated against — have been granted a unique place by God in the work of redemption. The beauty of their mission is already hinted at in the Old Testament, but it finds its fulfillment only in the New, that is in the sweet Mother of our Savior; in Mary, the gentle Maid of Nazareth who was chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of the Redeemer.

Let us take off our “secular” eye glasses, and then we shall be able to see that women, far from being “discriminated” against, are in many ways privileged. And this is the “secret” I wish to share with you. The body of every little girl born into this world is mysterious sealed by what is properly called “the veil of virginity”. That is to say, a “secret” is entrusted to her body, and a secret is always “veiled.” According to Christian teaching, this veil closes the entrance to a mysterious garden which belongs to God in a special way, and for this reason cannot be entered into except with His express permission, the permission that God grants spouses in the Sacrament of Matrimony. Any little girl aware of this “mystery” will feel that her body is to be modestly clothed, so that its secret will be hidden from lewd looks.

Little girls, of course, grow up. How beautiful when a bride can say to her husband on their wedding night, “I have kept this garden virginal for you, and now, with God's permission I am giving you its key, knowing that you will enter into it with reverence.”

Moreover, when a wife conceives a few hours after her husband has embraced her, God creates the child's soul in her body, (as you certainly know, neither husband nor wife can produce the human soul; God alone can create it.) In other words, there is a personal “contact” between God and the woman which, once again, gives to the female body a note of sacredness. Don't forget that He whom the whole universe cannot contain, was “hidden” in the womb of the Holy Virgin for nine months. Once you realize this, you will be awe-filled for the double mystery that God has confided to you: to conceive a human being made to God's image and likeness, and to give birth to it in pain and anguish. Do not forget that it was also in pain and anguish that Christ re-opened for us the gates of paradise — which had been shut by sin. To women has been granted the awesome privilege of nobly suffering so that a new human being, made to God's image and likeness, might come into the world. Meditate upon this for a moment, and you will feel a deep reverence for your body. It belongs to God, and is not a “play thing” that you can dispose of as you please.

If you ever study pagan art, you will discover that it pays tribute to the male reproductive organ, representing it in various sculptures and paintings as a symbol of strength, virility, creativity, power. But from the very moment that the Catholic Church became a recognized religion, she fought relentlessly against this pagan cult. But the Church introduced a prayer uttered millions of times every single day in which the female organ par excellence, the “womb” is mentioned. “Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus.” I am sure, my dear young friend, that if you meditate on this, you will understand that it is a privilege to be born a woman, and will respect the mystery that God has put in the female body.

Thank God that He has made you to be born a woman; I am sure now that you understand that it is a great privilege.

Dr. Alice von Hildebrand

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

von Hildebrand, Alice. “Letter to a Young Girl” this letter was submitted, by the author, for use by the Catholic Educator's Resource Center, (1999).

THE AUTHOR

Alice von Hildebrand was married to the great philosopher, spiritual writer, and anti-Nazi crusader, Dietrich von Hildebrand, who passed to his reward in 1977. She is Professor Emeritus at Hunter College (CUNY). Alice von Hildebrand is on the Advisory Board of the Catholic Educator's Resource Center.

Copyright © 1999 Alice von Hildebrand

Female Indecent Fashion.

I. Instruction of the Holy See

“Very often, as the occasion arose, the Sovereign Pontiff (Pius IX) reproved and energetically condemned the shameless styles of dress which, little by little, were becoming popular among Catholic women and girls. Such fashions not only offend against feminine beauty and modesty, but, what is still more serious, they do great harm to the wom

en who wear them, and, worse yet, they unfortunately lead many others to eternal damnation.

“Nothing is more reasonable or more necessary than that the Bishops - as is fitting for ministers of Christ - should, with one voice, raise a barrier against these bold and licentious fashions, bearing with serenity and courage the insults and mockery which they will receive, because of their unyielding position on this matter, from malicious spirits ...

“Let parish priests and preachers, according to the recommendation of Saint Paul, and as the occasion presents itself, “insist, explain, reprove and exhort”, to the end that women should dress in such a way as to radiate modesty, and their clothing enhance and protect virtue. Let them, also, admonish parents not to allow their daughters to wear immodest outfits.

“Parents should not allow their daughters to enter into public gymnastic exercises and other competitions of this kind. If such exercises should be obligatory, let parents, above all, take care that their daughters’ outfits not offend against modesty and propriety, and that they never be allowed to dress indecently.

“School principals and teachers should not receive into their schools students who dress in an unseemly fashion - nor make exceptions in this matter for their own children - and if such students have already been accepted, they should be expelled unless they correct themselves.”

II. Plenary Assembly of the Bishops of Brazil
“Let the priests forcefully insist that women wear clothing which expresses modesty ...

“Let women, at all times, but especially, as the Apostle Saint Paul teaches, when they are in church, dress with modesty. If they should dare to enter the church immodestly dressed, let them, as Canon Law commands (Canon 1262, par. 2), be judiciously put out and prevented from assisting at any function whatsoever.

“Let those who are going to receive Holy Communion be decently dressed. Women whose heads are not covered and who are improperly dressed are to be excluded from the Sacrament, as Canon Law directs (Canons 855 & 1262, par. 2).”

III. General Pastoral Directive (1915)
“Women must be decently dressed, especially when they go to church. The parish priest may, with due prudence, refuse them entrance to the church and access to the reception of the Sacraments, any and every time that they come to church immodestly dressed.” (#524)

Modesty and Modes of Dress
We are all born with a fallen nature and, consequently, we must keep our bodies covered in order to avoid the dangers of concupiscence.

This fact, a result of original sin, is deliberately ignored each time that naturalism attempts to insinuate itself into our Christian customs. Then it is that the purpose of clothing is lost sight of, and instead of being an invitation to virtue, it becomes an incitement to sin. The Church, like a vigilant Mother, full of tender care for the holiness and eternal salvation of Her children, has often been obliged to warn the faithful so that they might avoid the errors of fashion, and to take the measures necessary to ensure that the holy places and sacred things should not be profaned by immodesty in dress.

Unfortunately, we are living in times that have lost the sense of sin and, as a result, we see around us an eruption of styles of dress which are, in every way, contrary to Christian modesty. Christian people must not allow themselves to be carried along by the spirit of the world, but must firmly resist such deviations ... Jacinta Marto, one of the little seers of Fatima, although she was only eleven years old at the time, had a wisdom taught her by the Mother of God. She merits, therefore, our attention. Here is what she said with regard to styles of dress: “Fashions will arise which will greatly offend God”. When we consider the fashions of our day, we are led to conclude that the times foretold by the little seer have arrived. Indeed, the styles of dress of the women and girls of today such as: very tight clothing; dressing like men, including slacks and tights; low necklines; skirts with hemlines or slits which do not cover the leg below the knee — are absolutely contrary to the norms of Christian modesty.

For this reason, in order to conform to the recommendations of the Holy See, and in particular to the instructions of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, we urge our faithful people to refrain from following such ways of dressing.

“Those who keep the Law of God”, Jacinta said, “should not follow fashions”. Our priests must try to apply the instructions of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, without violence or rudeness, but with firmness. They must not let persons, dressed in the styles described above, receive the Sacraments and, as far as possible, must not allow them access to the Temple of God.

Furthermore, they must frequently remind the faithful of these regulations. Also, when couples present themselves for marriage preparation, the priests must tell them to inform their wedding guests of the rules for dress in church. People dressed in these unacceptable ways must not be accepted as witnesses to the marriage and, after due warning, they must not be admitted to Holy Communion.

It is highly recommended that these prescriptions be posted at the entrance to the Church.

- Bishop Antonio de Castro-Mayer

Modesty Standards
On January 12, 1930, the Sacred Congregation of the Council, by mandate of Pope Pius XI, issued emphatic instructions on modesty of dress to all bishops, directing them to insist on these prescriptions:


We recall that a dress cannot be called decent which is cut deeper than two fingers breadth under the pit of the throat, which does not cover the arms at least to the elbows, and scarcely reaches a bit beyond the knee. Furthermore, dresses of transparent material are improper.

Let parents keep their daughters away from public gymnastic games and contests; but, if their daughters are compelled to attend such exhibitions, let them see to it that they are fully and modestly dressed. Let them never permit their daughters to don immodest garb.”


Rufino J. Cardinal Santos, Archbishop of Manila, also quotes these standards as “The Church’s Stand concerning Modesty in Dress” in his Pastoral of December 6, 1959.

The feminine loss of the sense of modesty was indicated by Pope Pius XII who said:


“Now many girls do not see anything wrong with following certain shameless styles (fashions) like so many sheep. They would surely blush if they could only guess the impressions they make and the feelings they evoke (arouse) in those who see them.” (July 17, 1954.)

O Christian mothers, if only you knew the future distress, peril and ill-restrained shame that you prepare for your sons and daughters by imprudently accustoming them to live barely clothed, and permitting them to lose the sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves, and of the harm done to the little ones entrusted to you by Heaven to be reared in a Christian dignity and culture.”


And, men also are held to the virtue of modesty; witness the admonition of Canadian bishops in May of 1946:


Man himself does not escape from the inclination of exhibiting his flesh: some go in public, stripped to the waist, or in very tight pants or in very scanty bathing suits. They thus commit offenses against the virtue of modesty. They may also be an occasion of sin (in thought or desire) for our neighbor.”

The opinion which allows custom to dictate the question of modesty was refuted by Pope Pius XII in one short sentence:


“There always exists an absolute norm to be preserved.”

Custom, of course, pays no attention to absolute norms; but, it is a follower of this false principle: “... the majority cannot go wrong.”

To say that “... modesty is a matter of custom” is just as wrong as to say that “... honesty is a matter of custom.”

What about those who teach “what is customary does not affect us?”

Pope Pius XII calls this application of an ancient principle to the virtue of modesty “the most insidious of sophisms.” He calls attention to the fact that some people use this sophism “... in order to brand as ‘old fashioned’ the rebellion of honest people against fashions they consider too bold.”

The Pope’s pronouncements make no distinctions for various types of garments. Pius XII states “... an unworthy, an indecent mode of dress has prevailed” without any distinction of place, “on beaches, in country resorts, on the streets, etc.” (Aug. 29/54)

His quotation: “Vice necessarily follows upon public nudity,” applies as well to the beaches, or the streets, or resorts, or elsewhere.

Cardinal Pla y Daniel, Archbishop of Toledo, Spain, stated in 1959:


“A special danger to morals is represented by public bathing at beaches ... Mixed bathing between men and women, which is nearly always a proximate occasion of sin and a scandal, must be avoided.”

Modern Catholics may now consider themselves “far too adult” and disdain such directives, but nevertheless they remain the wise counsels of our Holy Mother the Church.

Padre Pio
The saintly stigmatized Padre Pio was always a merciless enemy of feminine vanity: he never tolerated low-necked dresses, short and or tight fitting skirts, and forbade his spiritual children to wear transparent stockings. In the last few years of his life, his severity increased enormously, as fashions became more and more immodest.

He unrelentingly dismissed from his confessional, before they could step inside, all women he judged to be incorrectly dressed. By 1967, on some mornings, he turned them away one after another, until he ended up confessing very few. His brethren noticed this with a certain unease, then decided to post on the door of the church a warning: “By Padre Pio’s explicit wish, women must enter the confessional wearing skirts AT LEAST 8 INCHES BELOW THE KNEE. It is forbidden to borrow longer dresses in church and to wear them to confession.” The beginning of the struggle with no concessions whatsoever coincided more or less with the advent of the mini-skirt, launched by the English girl Mary Quant. It had not yet reached Italy as Padre Pio was thundering against short skirts. As fashion houses announced: “Eight inches above the knee”, Padre Pio warned: “Eight inches below the knee”.

Now that Summer Is Here
When summer comes, a pastor of souls worries a little more than usual about the salvation of the flock that Our Lord has confided to him. He knows that, in the summer season, souls are more exposed to occasions of offending God, “of attacking God with His own gifts”, especially through sinful fashions of dress.

Our Lady said to Sister Lucy at Fatima: “There will be fashions which will greatly offend My Divine Son”. Today’s fashions prove Our Lady’s words true, for these fashions are occasions of sin, occasions, alas, of serious sin, by reason of the sinful thoughts and desires which they provoke. In the Gospel, Our Lord warned us about such evil desires: “But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart”. (Mt. 5:28).

In the life of Saint Frances of Rome, we read of a vision of Hell which was granted her, and which lasted for four hours. God willed to show her, in the fires of Hell, certain ladies whom she had known in Roman society. For what sins had these souls been damned? They had been damned:

for guilty desires, even though these had not been put into act.
for indecent styles of dress, which were the fashion of the day, and which had been a cause of seduction and of sin.
for dances, considered inoffensive by the world.
This vision of Hell so marked Saint Frances of Rome, that she had it painted on the murals of her chapel, as a constant reminder of the judgments of God. God then gave her the mission of drawing the Roman ladies out of their luxury and their vanity.

Our society is much worse than the society of Renaissance Rome. What can we do in order not to yield to the corruption which surrounds us, especially in the matter of dress? Let us, first of all, recall certain Catholic principles. It was with the help of such principles that Father Emmanuel, at Mesnil Saint-Loup, was able to make his Parish a truly Christian society once again.

Christianity is stable and solid only insofar as it permeates the whole being of the baptized person. It must, first of all, penetrate the inner man, and transform him into the image of Jesus Christ, in order to then regulate, according to this image, his exterior actions, words, and attitudes. It is not sufficient, Saint Paul tells us, for the heart to believe; we must also confess with our mouth, if we wish to be saved. And this external confession must extend to all our gestures, movements, habits, and relationships.

From this, it is easy to understand the importance of modesty for women. A woman who is vain gives the lie to her baptismal promises. A woman who tries to attract men’s glances to herself, shows by this conduct that she has no desire to please Jesus Christ.

In Holy Communion, Our Lord takes possession of our whole being, so that the soul becomes subject to Him in humility, and the body in modesty and restraint. From which it follows that a person who goes to Communion must be different, even exteriorly, from one who does not.

Modesty in a woman is the sign that Jesus Christ dwells in her heart. It is a sweet perfume of edification which she is called upon to diffuse.

Modesty in dress and behavior is, therefore, an indispensable way of making us more attentive to the obligations which we contracted at our Baptism. It is a consequence of that dogma of Faith which tells us that the baptized soul is the dwelling of the Blessed Trinity and that the body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. Saint Paul, infallibly inspired by God, tells us: “Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God, and you are not your own?... Glorify and bear God in your body”. (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Today’s fashions, on the contrary, dishonor and corrupt the Christian woman. Their aim is to seduce and to arouse concupiscence, to the detriment of the soul’s spiritual beauty, which is the true goal of our lives. All of this is a strategic Masonic maneuver. The destruction of Christian society, for which the Lodges have been working for two centuries, is to be realized through the destruction of the virtue of modesty in those who are baptized. This corruption, which has been deliberately and carefully programmed, is being systematically brought about.

It is, therefore, always necessary to remember the indispensable rules of Christian modesty, rules which are not to be practiced only in church! Let us, then, look at these rules, first in general, and then, in particular, with regard to assistance at Mass.

IN GENERAL, clothes should hide the shape of the body rather than accentuate it. Only this kind of clothing can truly be called “decent”. This rule automatically excludes slacks (which are masculine apparel) for women. Feminine apparel is a skirt or a dress which must cover the woman’s knees when she is seated. Decency in dress is to be observed, not only at Mass on Sundays, but every day of the week. The deciding factor is not whether slacks or culottes are more comfortable than a skirt, but rather to do the Will of God, by “loving Him in all things and above all things”, (Collect of the 6th Sunday after Pentecost).

IN PARTICULAR, when attending Mass, we must be still more careful about how we dress. For instance, women must cover their heads: “Every woman praying ... with her head not covered, disgraces her head” (1 Cor. 11:5). This rule has been the constant teaching of the Popes, and Pope St. Pius X had it included in the Code of Canon Law (Canon 1262). It is a sign of humility and submission for a woman to cover her head, and draws down God’s graces and blessings upon her. Nor is it an indifferent matter, just as no exterior act is an indifferent matter, for it proceeds from our very person and reveals what kind of person we are. Both men and women must have their arms covered in church, even when the weather is warm. It is true that this is a sacrifice, and we should offer it to Our Lord, who suffered so much for us in His Body, in order to save us. Let us learn to imitate Him in mortifying our body.

We must hold to these rules, of which we are mentioning only the most essential, without human respect, especially in these times of ours. “For”, as Dom Bernard Maréchaux used to say:


“the evil of our day is this: that the line of demarcation between Christian and non-Christian, between Christian and heretic, between Christian and idolator, is gradually fading away. The cancer of Liberalism attacks everyone and we must be careful not to be infected ourselves. Those who still call themselves Catholic live, too often, like those who have renounced this title. Women who go to church dress just the way women who do not go to church dress; they read the same books and magazines as these women; they go to the same - often immoral - shows as these women; they no longer pray or do penance. It is a confusion of license and worldliness. As a result of these customs, the Church is beginning to disappear in the world, Christianity is being lost. Only rarely does one find Catholics to whom the following words of Saint Paul can apply: “... be blameless and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world”. (Phil. 2:15). The early Christians stood out among the pagans like shining torches in the dark, and the example of their courage and their virtue attracted the pagans strongly to the Faith. This is something which we do not see today, except in rare cases. Everything is a mish-mash of unrestraint.”

Pope Pius XII said substantially the same thing, in an allocution to young Catholic girls during World War II: (May 22, 1941):


“... Numbers of believing and pious women ... in accepting to follow certain bold fashions, break down, by their example, the resistance of many other women to such fashions, which may become for them the cause of spiritual ruin. As long as these provocative styles remain identified with women of doubtful virtue, good women do not dare to follow them; but once these styles have been accepted by women of good reputation, decent women soon follow their example, and are carried along by the tide into possible disaster.”

Pope Pius XII indeed called Catholics to a Crusade of Purity. Good example is a great act of charity. It is an apostolate which God richly blesses, as we can see, for instance, in the diocese of Campos in Brazil, where the priests followed the good example of their bishop, Monsignor de Castro Mayer. Traditional priests - alas still few in number - are eager to have such a Crusade of Purity. In France, we can see the good that is being done by the “Mouvement de la Jeunesse Catholique de France”, and by traditional Catholic schools, in producing Catholics who are enthusiastically practicing the virtue of Christian modesty (which does not, by the way, prevent a woman from being gracious and lovely). In other countries, too, this Crusade is producing visible fruits of goodness and holiness.

We must mention here the important role of Christian mothers in teaching their children, their daughters especially, and from the time that they are very little, a true sense of Christian modesty.


“Men are lost through women and they are saved through women”, a preacher said one day. “By their vanity, they will make a man fall; by their modesty, they will save him. The world of morality oscillates between Eve and Mary. As long as modesty is not practiced, the world will not rise from its decadence.”

May devotion to the Holy Family help us in our Crusade for Purity!

Our Lady of Holy Hope, convert us!