Is it okay to wear short sleeved shirts?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larquetta
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aroosi said:
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Larquetta:
I am unable to, but the people I know do.
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That’s explain s lot. They are a Catholic fringe, for a while they were excommunicated and only recently brought back into communion with Catholic Church.
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This is false; unless the people known to the OP are priests, they have never been excommunicated.
 
One could wear long sleeves as a subjective way of practicing modesty, realizing that it’s entirely a personal thing. Maybe it would even be seen as an example of a alternative direction to go in, in the modern world. It doesn’t have to begin with judging short sleeves.
 
That’s a lot of maybes and what ifs that are projected onto a woman, with nothing to go on but uncharitable assumptions without evidence. I didn’t say my opinion was right or objectively true, but in reading his words about women makes me feel bad, as a woman. YMMV

Edited to add: I don’t mean to sound harsh toward you–I realise immediately after posting my response is curt. Forgive me…💜
 
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It is definitely NOT okay to wear short-sleeved shirts…in the winter. Otherwise, no problem.
 
NevermoreLenore said:
I’m glad you brought this up. Just last night I was trying to read some of Padre Pio’s writing and his harshness toward women kept popping into my mind, like ‘he wrote this encouragement for men, not me’. I know it’s silly, and usually I can ‘eat the hay and spit out the sticks’, but it triggers that sense of female shame that had been projected upon me/us from a variety of sources.
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He was equally harsh on men and would not let any man confess to him wearing short pants, including young boys, from what I have read.

We have to remember that
  • Padre Pio lived in an era where the clothing standards, including the type of clothing one was expected to wear to church or confession, were markedly different from what they are today.
  • He was approached by all sorts of curiosity seekers who weren’t really pious but were just coming to see him because they heard there was some mind-reading miracle-working monk, like he was a tourist attraction. When he was approached by someone who was actually super-penitent, he was very kind.
  • He could read hearts and when he was harsh on someone it was probably in an effort to get them to take their sins (which might have gone well beyond what clothes they wore) seriously and to clean up their act.
  • He was reportedly a pretty fun and jolly guy when he wasn’t hearing confessions or saying Mass. He just took sacred things very seriously.
  • His enemies also spread stories that he had affairs with the women who came to him for spiritual counseling. Apparently some of the Popes such as Pope John XXIII believed these reports. Obviously with that sort of threat hanging over his head, there was an extra motivation for Padre Pio to not want women coming to see him dressed in a non-conservative manner.
 
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Most healthcare workers wear short sleeves to make it easier to hands and forearms.

Does this make hospitals dens of iniquity?
 
Larquetta said:
I know that short sleeved shirts go against Pope Pius XI’s code of modesty, but almost all my shirts have short sleeves, so would it be acceptable to wear them (especially if I wear them with a shawl or jacket) until I can purchase more modest shirts?
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No, but stripes with plaids is a no-no. I think it’s from Maccabes.
 
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Dress in a way that makes you feel comfortable. If you, not someone else, feels uncomfortable wearing short sleeves, then cover up with long sleeves. If you are comfortable with short sleeves, then wear them. You are smart enough to judge for yourself what is appropriate or not. Ignore everyone else.
 
There is different sort of short sleeves tee shirt. Tee shirt that are sold and trendy for a long time are very tight-fitting and sadly have too short sleeves (according to my standard and what is available near me).
But they are not always like that. I have some older tee shirts that are larger and have longer short sleeves. And recently there are some shirts with larger and longer sleeves.

For modesty, it is not objective. Acceptable criterias vary from time and geography.
If you may want an idea of what is currently seems as acceptable by higher authorities, just make a search on how you should dress asd a woman when you visit the Vatican.

For your friends at the SPPX and what standards they instill on you. I will be very prudent. And the same if it’s online. They can bring you to a mental sect. Believe me, I have been here, recently remaking my entire dressing, by conviction. But it would never had happened if I had not been pushed strongly and I wanted to be accepted and “pleased” “them”.

Do they put you some kind of expectation or pressure of any sort on you to change the way you dress? Or do you want to do it because you feel it is the way for being accepted?
I would stress, that because you change your convictions (with or without their help) may be the only healthy reason.

These “friends” if they put many conditions and expectations of behavior, as well as excepting you to change on so superficial things as clothes may be dangerous to you if you engage yourself too much on them. They may not hesitate to leave you if you don’t match anymore their views. They may do the same even for reasons that have nothing to do with you (who know how people may act…). I pray that it would never happen, as it may be very painful.

If it goes wrongly, would you be at least be able to justify and assume your way of dressing?

(feel free to pm me if you feel the need).
 
Larquetta said:
I know that short sleeved shirts go against Pope Pius XI’s code of modesty, but almost all my shirts have short sleeves, so would it be acceptable to wear them (especially if I wear them with a shawl or jacket) until I can purchase more modest shirts?
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M2C: i’m guessing that God is just glad that you attend his house of worship. Now if you were talking about low-cut tops for a lady, then I would have a different opinion

Thomas
 
I would note that there’s a difference between “immodest” and “inappropriate for church wear”.

In Italy and other areas of Europe where churches ban sleeveless tops and shorts, it’s not considered immodest to wear a sleeveless top or shorts on the street, it’s just considered inappropriate for church. Tourist guides will suggest that if you wear a sleeveless top, you bring a light sweater or other little jacket so you can put it on just to go into churches, the idea being when you come out you can take it back off.

And of course in USA, the vast majority of Catholic churches don’t care if you wear a sleeveless top to church, and many don’t care if you wear modest shorts to church.
 
👍👍👍

I like it. Unless of course you live in New York City or Chicago. 😃
 
Short sleeved tops are fine, until the bingo wings appear 🙂
 
There is no Pius XI code. In 1928, the Congregation for Religious issued a document exhorting teaching sisters to ensure modesty in girls schools. No specific standards were given. In 1930, the Congregation for the Council (which dealt with clergy, and has since been reorganized) issued a letter reiterating this, but exhorting bishops and others in authority like parish priests to see that it was done. Again, there were no specific standards given.

Some bishops established their own standards in their diocese, some left it to the parish, etc. The rules that are usually quoted are actually attributed to Cardinal Pompili, the vicar general of Rome (while the Pope is the diocesan bishop of Rome, since he’s usually busy with other stuff, another bishop is appointed as his vicar to actually run the diocese). These are the standards Pompili put in place for schools run by religious sisters in the diocese of Rome.

They became associated with Pius XI himself in 1959 when the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Rufino Santos, quoted them in a pastoral letter and associated them directly with the Pope.

They were spread around the US by a priest named Fr. Bernard Kunkel, who ran a modesty apostolate he started in the 50s, with a magazine/newsletter called the Marylike Crusader that included reference to Cardinal Santos’s letter in a 1963 issue. And from there, they entered the popular mythology of the trad-isphere.
 
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