The last time I heard anything preached on this was many years ago when the pastor personally showed what was acceptable and what wasn’t from within the congregation itself. The following week he apologized as apparently many had taken offense. This was in a no-nonsense OF community, by the way.
Although I’m not offended, just distracted, sometimes I wonder what some cleavage-displaying women were thinking as they dressed for Church.
The Church is Universal and there are many cultures foreign to what you belong to in which women (and men) have always worn pants. They wore it before the Jesuit missionaries came and they continued to wear it after they converted. I cannot imagine how that could be construed as a “rebellion against God” or a “rebellious attitude”. Christ came to save all people, not just those in the western world who wore dresses or skirts…before or after conversion.
My father-in-law is a deacon that gave a very non-judgemental homily where he mentioned dressing to honor God at Mass, especially in the area of modesty. That week he got chewed out by the priest because the more feminist elements in that parish objected. He then had to have all his homilies edited.
The culture of dressing to impress is anything but modest. People dress nicely when they meet the President because they want to fit in and seem important. Formal attire and nice clothes have never been about being holy and modest. Dress is purely cultural. If I go to a mass in a third world country wearing a fancy suit while everyone else is dressed in tattered clothes then that is not moddest of me. Even if I dress in a nice polo and a good pair of jeans I am still dressing way above my brothers and sisters and displaying my wealthy culture. Clothing is and has always been about outward appearance and social status. The Church says to dress modestly, not to dress nicely and part of that reason is because dressing nicely can easily fall into the area of being immoddest.
Bummer.
Men wearing open shirts on a bare chest bother me as well.
thank you for this. you are a good example for others and not a scandal.
Nice post.
Reading a couple of these post on this topic just reeks of the American mentality “don’t tell me what to do or wear”.
very well said. now, if one have money to buy an indescent cloth, why not instead use the money to by descent clothes? this is not about the money, this is about being ashamed of being a Catholic. just like so many outhere dont even want to do the sign of the Cross anymore.
That’s probably more of my fault than the poster quoted. I asked (noting that it wasn’t the same thing) when it was that people started actually dressing up for Church. I tried to indicate it was mainly a curiosity thing on my part because I know from history that traditionally common folks didn’t own “Dress” clothes. I am not trying to use the past to justify what we do today or say “don’t tell me how to dress”. Standards aren’t the same now as they were then. But I also wanted to point out for about the first 1700 years of the Church, people didn’t “dress up.” They couldn’t. In the history of the Church, it’s a relatively new concept. And some people can’t afford to buy special Sunday clothes and dress up (I am one of them. I have nice/modest clothes, but I wear them to work too… I need to buy things that have several possible uses. And yes, they are a little worn).
Huh? How did we get from women need to wear dresses instead of pants like a man to now they are ashamed of being Catholic? Just like people who don’t want to do the sign of the Cross anymore??? Now I’m super confused how that leap is made?
For me it’s about money. I think that’s why I start getting a little upset when people say my wearing pants is bad. What’s next, my shoes aren’t good enough either because I use a sharpie to color in the scuffed up spots (to make them last longer)? I have to wear dress pants at work. I don’t have a lot of money to spend on clothes, so my work clothes (which are my better clothes) are often my Church clothes. I do own one skirt–I bought it for Easter, along with a pink jacket, a few years ago. Typically I wear that same skirt every Sunday from about April to September. It’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s what I have. In fall and winter, I wear my work dress slacks to stay warm. It just makes me distressed to essentially be told that I am not good enough for God because I prefer to spend money on a roof over my head, heat and groceries rather than clothes.
No. I’m there to focus on other things.
I think this is the problem with all of these threads. The issues of dressing up and dressing modestly always get all mixed up.
